Order Up!
by TealEmperor
Summary: A novelization of episode 5. After finding a magical flint and steel on a treasure hunt, Jesse and her friends are thrown headfirst into a long and exciting adventure. Its first step takes them to a strange city in the sky...
1. Finders Keepers

**A/N: Remember when I promised a sequel to Portal Party? Well, that was before I knew about Hero in Residence coming up in a month. Since what I had planned to write was going to be like an unofficial Season 2, it might not work if there's going to be a real Season 2. While I try to figure out how to deal with this new plot development, here's my favorite episode of MCSM in novella form.**

 **I'll try to stay faithful to the episode, but you know me, so any Lukesse moments will probably be emphasized.**

 **Some dialogue might be paraphrased, deleted, or changed from the original. For instance, I've altered the dialogue where Petra talks about being "a scared bunch of noobs" in the Order Temple because she wasn't there at the time.**

 **I am using Instagamrr's playthrough as a reference.**

 **Order Up!**

 _Jesse Used: Fem!Jesse, variant 1. Let's call her Jess._

Ah, the jungle; the perfect place for adventure. As night fell, so did the temperature, giving a welcome respite from the day's heat and humidity. Dew soaked the grasses and foliage. It glistened in the light of the full moon, giving the leaves and vines a silver shine in the dark. Some jungle creatures had gone to sleep; others were just beginning to wake up. Among those were a trio of ocelots. The small wild cats snuck through the tall grasses and over thickets, pressing their tiny noses to the ground. They were in search of something.

Suddenly, their sensitive cat ears picked up a noise. It was a thumping sound—someone's footsteps. A human was approaching! The ocelots stood up straight and growled a little, flicking their tails in anxiety. Then the shy cats bounded away, fleeing to pick up the hunt somewhere else.

Only a few paces away from where the ocelots had stood, a tangle of foliage rustled. A young woman, maybe eighteen, maybe more or less, pushed her way past the leaves and ferns. She was trying to be quiet, but had managed to scare the ocelots anyway. When she saw what lay ahead, the destination of her jungle journey, she smiled a cheesy little grin and continued stalking towards it. Ah, finally, her friends' trip through the rainforest had come to its goal. Hopefully the treasure they'd find would make up for hours of climbing over thickets in stifling heat, as hundred-foot-tall trees loomed overhead.

Speaking of friends, those friends would catch up with her in a second, so Jess continued on to approach the ancient temple. Excitement, danger, and of course treasure awaited. But it appears that danger would be the first one to meet them! A creeper scurried across her path, forcing Jess to take shelter behind the thick trunk of a jungle tree. The furry green creature, somehow armed with the power to self-detonate and destroy its enemy, reminded Jess of how unsafe the rainforest could be at night. There were hostile creatures lurking everywhere. She drew her sword so that she would have defense at the ready. The sparkling blue blade glowed with magic. It was enchanted to be extra sharp and deadly. Shimmiying around the tree, Jess scampered out into the open to deal with the monsters. Zombies, skeleton archers, spiders, and creepers presented a challenge. They'd have to be eliminated before Jess could even think of entering the temple in the first place.

Of course, that's not to say they were much of a challenge after all. When a handful of zombies started hobbling towards her, she sent them back to Davy Jones's locker with a swift swipe of her sword. Another group of zombies ganged up on her and were slayed with even less effort. To think that about a year ago, she was fearing for her life as she tried to bat _one_ zombie away with a pitiful wooden sword! Hurrying forward, she cut down a third group of zombies, killing four of the beasties at once. She grinned wide, pleased with herself. Not bad at all, Jess.

Of course, it wasn't wise for Jess to feel too good about herself. There were still more monsters to fight. Two skeletons behind her drew their bows, and she didn't realize it until she heard the creaking bowstrings. Uh-oh! They'd be able to shoot before she could run forward and kill them. Jess had armor, purple armor called Dragonsbane, but it wouldn't block every bit of damage from the arrows.

"Look out!" cried a voice from above. Jess stole a quick glance up. Petra stood at the top of a jungle tree. When she saw her friend in danger, Petra leapt clean off with a wild war cry and rained down warrior fury on the skeletons. She smashed one to bonemeal with her golden sword and sent the other one flying with a strike from the mighty blade. The half-dead skeleton whizzed toward Jess, who wasn't quite sure how to react. Jess swatted the skeleton aside with her own sword, sending it crashing to the ground next to her. Both skeletons disappeared in puffs of chalky smoke, leaving behind bones and arrows.

Jess sighed in relief. "Thanks."

Petra bounded forward a few steps and struck a grin, satisfied with her skillful moves.

Just then, a rough male voice called out to them. "Hey, Jess! Check this out!"

They glanced over at the source of the voice, their friend Axel. Axel was a mountain of a young man, with a barrel chest and thick arms. He also tended to have a thick skull at times, but, uh, Jess kept that opinion to herself. Anyway, Axel had two zombies caught in headlocks under his arms. They were like limp ragdolls in his thrall.

"And 3, 2, 1…" His voice was slightly muffled under his glass helmet. "POP!"

He squeezed the zombie's necks as hard as he could, killing the monsters. They poofed into dust right in his arms. He chuckled, feeling like a million bucks for his unorthodox move.

"Pretty cool, right?" He lifted his hefty arms and flexed, not noticing the zombie sneaking up behind him. "You can try it too if you want—"

Jess, however, noticed the zombie and decided to take action. "Duck!"

She ran forward and somersaulted right over Axel's broad back, whacking the zombie into a stone wall and killing it. It left behind a pile of rotten meat. Jess wisely left the zombieflesh untouched.

Axel was a little stunned a first, and then he said, "Dude, you're getting pretty good at this."

He raised his hand for a high-five. Jess answered it. Yeah, teamwork!

Meanwhile, another friend had seen that whole scene take place. Now it was her turn to shine! Olivia leaned against a cluster of dispensers supported on fence posts, wearing redstone-themed armor and a confident smirk. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"You guys are working way too hard!" she said, feeling sure of herself for once. Then she bashed her machine on its side with her elbow and let it do its thing. A blinding volley of arrows flew out of the dispensers. The mobs standing in front of it didn't stand a chance. Creepers, zombies, skeletons, and spiders flopped to the ground with arrows stuck in their heads and torsos. A cloud of smoke went up from the aftermath. The mob drops of bones, rotten flesh, gunpowder, and string littered the ground.

Jess laughed, impressed with Olivia's skills. "You're always trying to one-up us, aren't you?"

One last zombie staggered towards her from behind. Man, those things just do not give up. It would have seemed that Jess didn't notice it coming, like how Axel hadn't, but she knew it was sneaking up behind her. She could smell its stinking rotten flesh. Without even bothering to glance back at the monster, Jess twirled her sword around and stabbed the zombie through the chest. The beast crumpled to the ground and disappeared into dust. Jess nonchalantly sheathed her sword.

Now that the annoying mobs had been slain, the friends could focus on why they'd come here in the first place. The ancient temple stood nestled under the trees. It was dome-shaped and built out of stone bricks and mossy cobblestones. Tiki torches provided light, but not a lot of light. A small tree stump stood outside the building.

"Wow. That is one seriously cool temple," Jess said. She and her friends had explored plenty of temples in the past, but this was the largest and most elaborate they'd seen yet.

The other three wandered up and voiced their assent.

"Yeah, points for Ivor, I guess," said Petra. "This was a good tip."

It was? Ivor had been chattering too excitedly about it for Jess to figure out much of what he had been saying. Something about "be careful about the traps," "worthwhile treasure," and "ancient secrets." Since she had gotten to know the man better, he'd revealed a goofy, erratic side he'd been hiding for who knows how long.

Looking up to Jess as the de facto leader of the team, Olivia asked, "Well, Jess?"

Of course they'd go ahead and raid the temple! They didn't come all this way to stare at it, now did they?

Jess leaned on one hip, thinking of something clever to say. "Order of the Stone? Let's get dangerous."

She was expecting them to tease her for her rather corny line, but instead they cheered "Danger!"

Without a second thought they ran across the stones, up the stairs, and straight into the temple. Axel waved his arms in the air in excitement.

The first room in the temple was a square-shaped central room. On the three other walls, thin flows of lava poured out from the ceiling into channels in the floor. A couple levers were on the wall next to them, presumably to operate the lava channels. There was a square-shaped depression, covered in polished andesite blocks, in the middle of the floor. It looked like a puzzle.

 _Great._

Jess hated puzzles. But in order to get anywhere after this, she had to figure out how it worked. She decided to investigate it closer to figure out how it worked.

She had only taken a few steps inside when Axel approached and complained about the empty room. "After we all yelled 'danger,' I got a little nervous, but this place is empty. There isn't even any treasure!"

"Come on. You know how these places work. The treasure's never just out in the open." Then Jess suggested what she had been about to do. "Let's fan out and search the place."

The others dispersed to do their own thing. Jess set about to figure out what the deal with the puzzle was. The mechanism for the levers seemed to be the same for each lava channel. Was she supposed flick the levers in a certain way so that all three lava channels ran into the depression in the floor? She was afraid that flicking the wrong lever would trigger a trap. Temples in jungles were notorious for that.

She explained what she had made of the puzzle to her friends, in case they could help. "These channels lead to the center of the room."

Olivia was likewise sensing a puzzle to be solved here. "They look like they're designed to let lava flow from those channels in the wall."

Okay, sure. That probably was the case. But how would she know which levers were the right ones?

"Why would you want to do that?" Axel muttered. No-one paid him any mind.

Jess noticed quartz glimmering on the walls. Each lava channel had a quartz design next to it on the wall, but not all of them were the same. Curious. One wall had one dot of quartz, another had two, still another had three, and the final one had four.

Wait a minute.

Eureka!

Jess flipped the switches in order. One, two, three, four. Then she stood back and hoped it would work.

The mechanisms disengaged and released lava into the channels on the floor. Once complete, she heard the grinding of ancient contraptions within the structure of the temple. The andesite blocks on the floor cranked back, revealed a deep chasm below. One wooden staircase spiraled down to whatever lay at the base of the temple, snaking around the lavafall now pouring down the center of the chasm.

The others murmured in wonder. Petra nodded at Jess, impressed. Then Jess hesitantly led the way down the staircase.

"I think I actually would have been _disappointed_ if it hadn't opened up into a dark, creepy passageway, Axel commented before joining them.

Down the stairs they went, surrounded by the red glow of lava. Even from the safe distance, they could feel its heat pressing against them. Jess pulled her hair back and slung it over her right shoulder so it wouldn't get singed.

"This reminds me of when we first went to the Order's temple," Olivia said as they marched down the stairs.

"Yeah," Petra interjected. "We were such a scared bunch of noobs back then."

"I wasn't scared," Axel boasted.

"Oh really? Then who was the one crying 'Help me! Help me! The dispensers are trying to kill me'? Olivia told me _all_ about it."

"Olivia! We talked about that!" Axel whined to Olivia.

"Must've slipped my mind," Olivia chuckled.

Man, how long ago had _that_ been? It must at least have been eight months since the Witherstorm disaster.

"Gosh, that feels like it was a million years ago," Jess said. "We've packed in a lot since then. All those temples we've explored, monsters we've fought...look at how far we've come."

"Not noobs anymore!" Axel shouted. "We're freaking _pros!_ "

"Would you say we're pros, Olivia?" Jess inquired.

Olivia shrugged, making her pigtails bounce. "Maaaaybe…I'd say we're pretty good. I don't want to get cocky, though."

"What's the matter with a little confidence?" Petra twirled her sword in her hand.

"They say that 'pride goeth before a fall.'"

"A fall down the stairs? 'Cause these things are so rickety," Axel complained. The boards creaked under his girth.

"I think you're worrying too much, Liv. We're doing fine." Jess stepped off of the staircase, onto the floor of the basement. "See, we're where we need to be, and all in one piece!"

The basement of the temple was a large, shadow-shrouded chamber. The floor was quartz and wood, and pillars held up the ceiling. Not much else was visible. The most important thing Jess saw, however, was the oft-sought treasure. Four wooden chests sat on the floor.

"Treasure!" she proclaimed. Behind her, her friends cheered.

"Okeedokee, let's see what's inside." She chose a chest at random and knelt next to it. The latch was locked, but so rusty that she had no problem forcing the chest open anyway. While she leaned in to examine the contents, she heard creaky latches and shuffling items around her. Petra, Axel, and Olivia were attacking the other chests.

Her first reward was a cake. She announced her find to the others.

"Hey, it's a cake!"

Despite being in a chest, the cake was not rotten or moldy or anything like that. Minecraftian food does not spoil or go stale. It was a bit hard and crumbly on the outside, but beside that, it was as good as a freshly-baked cake. Jessie swiped a bit of frosting off on her finger and licked it. Yep. Still good.

Axel heard the word "cake" and was immediately interested. His head snapped up to see Jess sampling the treat.

"Oh! That's like the cake you swiped from the witch's hut!" he said. "I was so jealous of you."

Jess held the cake and looked at Axel, wondering if she should give it to him or not. On one hand, it was her cake because she found it, "finders keepers" and all that, but on the other hand, Axel _was_ her good friend. Maybe he'd be okay with just taking a slice or a quarter of the cake or maybe…

"It's just...I really love cake," he said. "It looks so good."

Jess's resolve melted. "It's all yours, Axe-man."

She tossed the cake to Axel, who deftly caught it and smelled the frosting. While he stammered his thanks, Jess went back to searching the chest. She pulled out a pumpkin. Its spooky little face leered back at her.

"Huh, a pumpkin," she mused. "That might come in handy if we run into Endermen."

Truth be told, she preferred goopy pumpkins to Soren's stinky Enderman suit. She put the pumpkin in her pocket.

"Let's see, there's one more thing in here." She dug out the final goody. "It's…"

She trailed off. In her hands, she held a flint and steel, but it was like no flint and steel she'd ever seen. It felt as smooth as glass and gleamed with a mighty blue glow. Jess had handled flint and steel sets with Unbreaking enchantments before, and they seemed to have a coat, a crust almost, of magic around them. This one, however, seemed to be fully and innately magical.

The other three gathered around Jess to see the flintensteel for themselves.

"That's so cool," Axel gushed. Then again, Axel found most things in life to be super cool.

"What is that?" Olivia squinted at it. "I've never seen a flint and steel glow blue before."

"Maybe it's an enchantment?" Petra suggested.

"No, I've seen ones with enchantments before. They never look like _that_."

"Then I haven't a clue what this is," Jess said. "Or what it does. Do you think it even sets fires?"

Petra shrugged. "Magic fires, probably."

"There's only one way to find out," Olivia said. "Give it a strike."

"Alrighty, flint and steel. Dazzle me." Jess struck the pieces together.

A powerful blue spark leapt from the flintensteel and shimmered in the air. It was like a star had flashed in the room.

"Ooo," everyone mused in amazement.

"Whoa!" Jess gasped. "They usually don't do that!"

Everyone was so enamored with the magic flintensteel that they didn't notice zombies approaching. Again with the zombies. They were coming in on all sides. When the zombies were close enough for their moans to be audible, the friends snapped to attention. Jess stowed away her prize and got out her sword instead. She wasn't scared, though. If they could handle the googlies outside the temple, it wouldn't be so hard to get rid of them inside it, too.

"Guys? Looks like some monsters have a death wish."

The New Order grouped up, back to back to back to back. Petra had her gold sword out in a second, Axel flexed his biceps and curled his hands up into meaty fists, and Olivia whipped out her enchanted bow with an arrow at the ready.

"What's the plan, Jess?" Axel asked. "Ya ask me, now seems like a good time for a _secret handshake._ "

"Secret handshake" being the code word for "awesome battle move."

"So let's use the Redstone Rap," Olivia said, wanting her idea to be used. "Obviously."

"That's a funny way to pronounce Warrior Whip," Petra retorted.

Jess had a couple of options. They had the Redstone Rap and the Warrior Whip, but the Griefer Grab (Axel's move of choice) and the Builder Bump (Jess's own invention) were also plausible. The Griefer Grab was too risky for Jess's tastes, as it involved her flying through the air while holding a primed TNT charge, and the Redstone Rap took too much time to set up. She liked the Builder Bump, but not as much as…

"Warrior Whip! Go!" Jess declared.

"All right!" Petra sprang into action. "Make it good, just like we practiced."

Petra held her sword out to Jess. Jess grabbed the sword and spun Petra around, winding up for the throw.

"Whoa-ah-ah-oh!" Petra cried as she was spun.

Finally Jess released her grip, and Petra soared. She started to spin in midair, turning into a whirling blur of danger for the incoming zombies. The monsters got sliced to ribbons. Petra landed effortlessly on her feet and stabbed her sword into the last zombie's head, putting on a fierce warrior pose.

"Incredible!" Olivia applauded. "I like the Redstone Rap better, but that one's not bad at all."

"Meh, it's okay," Axel said, not wanting to admit how cool it was.

The next thing to do was to get the heck out of that temple! No waiting around for more monsters to harass them. Jess and her friends shot up the stairs, some of them skipping steps in their haste.

Abruptly a compartment in a quartz arch in the wall snapped open, and still more zombies staggered out of it. Jess almost groaned in annoyance.

"Zombies, zombies, zombies," Olivia complained, nocking an arrow on her bow. "It's always zombies."

Jess swatted two zombies off the stairs as they approached her. They fell down the chasm and hit the ground with sickening thumps. She was doing okay until an arrow whizzed in front of her and stuck in the ground at her feet. It had been shot by the skeleton archers standing on the stairs above them. They didn't have to worry about those for long, though, because a lavafall washed over them and burned them up.

"Ha! Lava took 'em out!" Axel cheered.

Unfortunately, the lava also took out the stairs. And since they were wooden stairs, they caught on fire. The blaze chewed up the wood, crawling up the staircase towards Jess and her friends.

Olivia pointed that out. "Aaaaaaand there go the stairs."

"We need to get out of here, now!" Jess shouted. She let her friends hurry on ahead of her and brought up the back. She coughed as smoke from the burning stairs assaulted her senses. The heat, both from the lava and the fire, was like a furnace.

"Look out!"

As Jess ran across a platform, another lavafall seeped through the stone. She slid across the wood to avoid it. She narrowly jumped from a part of the stairs just as they burned to nothing, then continued climbing for her life.

To her horror, yet another spurt of lava set the stairs in front of her on fire. They crumbled to ash, leaving a long gap between Jess and safety. Behind her, the staircase groaned as it withered under the heat and flames.

"We're trapped!" Axel yelled over the bubbling lava and hissing flames. "Now what?"

Jess bit her lip, panicking a little. It was not a good day to die! But if there was one thing she knew from having so many adventures, it was that there was always a plan B. She glanced up. Vines had grown over the stone bricks leading up to the mouth of the chasm. They were strong enough to support the weight of a human. If they could climb them, they could escape.

"The vines. Quick!" She motioned for her friends to start climbing. Everyone started shimmying up as quickly as they could. The vines were their way of escape, but vines aren't fireproof. Jess didn't dare look down. Up she went, furiously grabbing at vines to hoist herself up, as well as twirling them around her ankles for a foothold.

As if the weird puzzles, the zombies, the lava, and the fire weren't enough, yet another assault was incoming. There was a hole in the wall they were climbing up, and little blue spiders started climbing out it. Jess recognized the blue spiders with their bloody red eyes all too well.

"Cave spiders. Why did it have to be cave spiders?" Petra groaned. Cave spiders were one of very few monsters that gave her trouble.

"There's only one way out: through them," Jess said as she drew her sword. She had to climb vines _and_ fight venomous spiders at the same time. She tried not to swing the sword too much, lest she lose her balance and fall to her death, so she resorted to stabbing at the spiders and batting them away as they approached. It was a risky gambit, but it was also her only option. Between hers and Petra's efforts, they repelled the spiders. They were almost able to escape.

One last trick tried to prevent them from doing so. The hidden ancient machinery ground and clanked again, and the andesite blocks started to push together.

"The tunnel's closing!" Jess cried.

Not yet! They wouldn't be able to climb up the vines all the way before the tunnel completely shut. Jess would have to buy them a little more time. Carefully she aimed, praying that the trick would work.

She tossed up her sword, and miraculously, it wedged itself between the andesite rocks. There was now an opening wide enough to allow an escape.

Honestly, Jess hadn't expected that to work, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Axel, in his usual reaction to cool stuff, started babbling about how amazing that was. Petra calmed him down. They ascended up the rest of the vines and crawled out of the tunnel into safety. Jess sighed for relief when they were back in the lobby of the temple. The mechanism for the tunnel continued to make noise, groaning as it struggled against the sword wedging it open. Jess bent down to retrieve her weapon.

She tried pulling it free. "Boy, I hope our treasure was worth all that excitem—uh oh!"

More spiders were crawling out of the hole, en route to harass Jess and her friends. Panicking, Jess tried more frantically to remove the sword. Finally she did, right before the spiders reached them. The andesite slabs snapped shut with enough force to make the floor shake.

"You okay, Jess?" Axel offered his hand to her and helped her to her feet. The New Order promptly exited the temple after that. Their hearts were still pounding and their breaths were still sharp. Talk about an exciting night! They stood at the edge of the clearing, away from the heat in the temple. Crickets chirped in the distance.

"Aw man, that was great," Axel said, reaching down and putting his hands on his knees. "Never gets old."

"Uh-huh," Olivia and Petra agreed.

Now that the adrenaline rush was over, Jess had more time to study her new enchanted flint and steel. What made this set so special? She pulled it out and turned it over in her hands.

"Oh! I almost forgot about your new flint and steel," Olivia said, noticing it.

"Try it out on something!" Axel begged.

"He's right," Olivia said (wow, Olivia agreed with Axel on something for once? Incredible!) "I'm dying to know how it works. If we can find out how it works, that is."

"Won't know until we try it," said Axel. "What do you want to burn first?"

"Way ahead of you, Axel." Jess walked over to the small tree stump outside the temple. She positioned her flintensteel over the log and struck it, spraying brilliant blue sparks. The second the sparks touched the wood, it went up in a tower of bright blue flames. The wood was incinerated in an instant.

"Wow," everyone gasped, stunned by the ferocity of the fire.

"Now that's impressive," Petra chuckled. "I bet that would make an awesome weapon."

They didn't get to ooh and ah over the flintensteel for long, though, because someone interrupted them.

"Well, well," said an unfortunately familiar voice. "Where'd you get the new toy?"

Jess and her friends wheeled around to see a brown-haired boy, no older than them, leaning lazily against the temple stairs and twirling a diamond sword in his hand.

 _Aiden_.

He hopped down from his arrogant little perch and approached the New Order. "Looks a bit sophisticated for you, Jess."

Aiden's two friends, Maya and Gill, came slinking out of the shadows to assist Aiden in harassing the New Order.

"Order of the Losers," Maya sneered.

"Yeah, losers," Gill agreed.

Aiden stood in front of Jess, with his hands on his hips and his cronies flanking him. He wore a new leather jacket and a pretentious smirk.

Olivia groaned. "Who let you jokers out of your cave?"

"Joke's on you. We don't live in a cave," Maya retorted, rolling her pale blue eyes.

Jess decided to deal with the situation by mirroring Aiden's arrogance. "Well, well, _well_. If it isn't Aiden and the Pussycats."

Aiden scowled.

"That's not our name!" Gill protested, shaking his fist.

Olivia humored them. "So what are you _Ocelots_ doing here, then?"

"The Ocelots? Psh!" Aiden scoffed. "The Ocelots were Lukas's gang. We ditched that name just like we ditched that little blond loser."

Now it was Jess's turn to scowl. She liked Lukas. No way was she going to let this arrogant punk talk smack about Lukas like that.

"Yeah, we rebranded." Maya turned around to show them the blaze rods painted on the back of her jacket. "We're the Blaze Rods now."

"Blaze Rods!" Gill boasted, waving his hands in the air.

Aiden glared at him. "Shut up, Gill."

Gill wilted. "Sorry, boss."

Jess shrugged. "Too bad. Honestly, I liked Ocelots better. Blaze Rods just doesn't have the same ring."

Gill blurted, "That's what I said." However, Aiden shut him down with an even more poisonous stare before Gill could say anything else.

Aiden walked in a half-circle around Jess. "Where's Lukas then, if you like him so much? Funny how the minute the Old Order decided you were cool, he wouldn't stop sniffing around you like a dog. He calls himself an Ocelot, but that's what he is: a dumb dog!"

"You take that back," Jess snarled.

"Can't. Wouldn't." Aiden shrugged as if he hadn't just insulted his former friend.

"Lukas is ten times the guy you are," Petra snapped.

"Or ever will be," Olivia added.

Jess put her hand on her hip. "Unlike you, Lukas is a hero."

"So now you're going to throw around that 'hero' crap?" Aiden's lip curled up. "You probably think that stupid trinket makes you _so special_. Typical Jess."

Jess tiled her head to the side slightly, keeping the flintensteel close in case Aiden tried to make a grab for it.

"You take all the best stuff for yourself and never give anyone else a chance!" He almost stomped his foot on the ground in frustration.

So that's what his hostility was all about. Aiden already had sickly green eyes, but now his jealousy seemed to be making them even greener.

He pointed at the flint and steel. "That should have been ours."

"Oh, yeah?" Axel challenged.

"Yeah!" Maya shot back.

Not wanting to be left out, Gill said, "Blaze Rods!"

If looks could kill, Gill would have been dead from the stare Aiden gave him. "I said shut up, Gill!"

"Look, Aiden, I don't know what to tell you except that we earned it," Jess said. "Fair and square. We got here first, beat the monsters, and cracked the puzzles. This is our reward."

"She's right. We fought monsters, lava, uh, levers…" Axel counted off obstacles on his fingers. "We fought lots of stuff, and we're sure as heck not gonna give up what we earned."

"Fair and square?" Aiden asked scornfully. "Nothing you've ever done was fair and square."

There was a tense pause, and then Aiden suddenly whipped out his sword. To Jess's dismay, so did Maya and Gill. Three diamond swords were pointed at her and her friends. Not ideal.

"Hand over the flint and steel, Jess," he demanded. "I won't ask again."

"Aiden, back off," Jess warned. "Don't do dumb stuff like this."

"Jess, why are we listening to this loser?" Axel said. "Talk crap, get slap!"

Axel yelled and charged at Aiden to attack. But Aiden gave Axel a kick in the gut, knocking him to the ground.

"Not a chance, chunky!" Aiden sneered.

That did it. Jess, Petra, and Olivia had their weapons out in a second. Maya and Gill gasped, realizing that the New Order weren't the pushovers Aiden had made them seem. The cronies were a lot less cocky now that two swords and a bow were aimed at them. Axel stumbled to his feet and put up his hammy fists, ready to do some battery.

"Some hero you are, Jess. You're going to attack us because I said something mean to your friend?"

Jess tried to ignore his guilt trip. "You know, guys? Let's just go home. These 'Blaze Rods' aren't worth it."

Aiden glanced around at Jess and her friends. Four New Order members versus three Blaze Rods. It wouldn't work out.

At least he knew when to fold 'em. "Fine."

He and the Blaze Rods sheathed their swords. In turn, the New Order put away their weapons.

"What hope do we have when 'heroes' like you are always throwing your weight around?" he asked Jess, then ended on a dark note: "It's not always gonna be this way, though."

He and Maya turned and snootily walked away. Gill stuck around for one last shout of his catchphrase.

"Blaze Rods!"

Aiden shoved him. "Shut. Up."

Jess and her friends watched him leave, shaking their heads in confusion. What had gotten into him?

"What a bunch of stinking bullies," Axel muttered.

"Are you okay?" Petra asked him. "He shoved you down. That looked like it hurt."

"I'm fine. A little sore, but I'm fine," he responded.

"Geez, was Aiden always that angry?" Olivia gazed off into the dark jungle. "He was salty enough to warrant a high blood pressure warning."

"No, and that's what is bothering me," Jess said, leaning on one hip. "I've got a bad feeling about him. I mean, he shoved Axel to the ground and threatened us with swords. I hope he doesn't hurt anyone."

"We should keep an eye on him, watch to make sure he doesn't get in trouble." Petra blew some stray hair out of her face.

"And he was acting that way just because he wanted the flint and steel," Axel said, stretching his arms a little. "What's up with that?"

"Maybe Ivor knows more about it," Petra suggested. "He's the one who gave us the tip in the first place. I bet he has a book about it. Ivor has books about almost everything."

"That's a good idea," Jess said, nodding. "Come on. If we leave now, we should get back home by sunrise."

They turned and headed off in the direction of home, leaving the misty jungle behind.


	2. Losers Weepers

**A/N: About the sequel - I'm working on it as I'm doing this. That project takes a lot more thinking and planning than this one, because I have to organize ideas into episodes and write decent plots. I think I will start releasing chapters once this is finished. Since there are only six chapters in Episode 5, this shouldn't take too long.**

 **I'm switching from copying dialogue verbatim to paraphrasing every line.**

The trek back through the jungle and outlying woodlands took all night. Jess, Petra, Axel, and Olivia soldiered through the wilds on their way home. They were tired, but thinking about the exciting enchanted flint and steel energized them. The sun had just cleared the horizon when the gates of their town came into view. They walked down a stone path flanked with stout oak trees. The sun was bright, the day was warm, and the future looked pretty good.

"Finally, I can recognize stuff again," Axel said, relieved. "Feels good to be home."

Petra nodded. "I second that."

Jess looked over and noticed that Olivia seemed less happy than the others. The girl walked with her hands clasped behind her back and her head drooping down.

Jess patted her on the shoulder. "Olivia? Is something wrong? You seem pretty quiet."

"I can't stop thinking about what Aiden said," Olivia answered. "I mean, part of it's true. We do find and keep a lot of treasure. And, if you looked at it from the right angle, I guess we do throw our weight around sometimes."

"No, we don't do that," Axel protested. "Aiden is just super jealous. That's it."

"Hmm-mm." Olivia didn't seem so convinced.

Axel's theory about the jealousy seemed the most plausible to Jess. "Axel's right. Aiden's jealous. He sees our cool armor, the sweet treasure we find on adventures, and he wants it too!"

Olivia shrugged, still mostly unconvinced. "I guess so."

Why did she have to be such a stick in the mud?

The giant stone gates creaked open, revealing the bright and clean streets of Jess's town. Freshly rebuilt stone cottages lined the street. Reuben's memorial stood where anyone could see it, the diorite stone polished to a mirror shine. There weren't many people out and about yet, since it was fairly early in the morning.

"Aiden can think whatever he wants about us." Petra removed her helmet and shook out her fiery red hair. "There's one thing for certain."

"What?" Olivia questioned.

"They think we're pretty awesome!" She pointed at two townspeople standing nearby. One was a guy and the other was a lady with a ponytail.

The guy gasped when he saw Jess and hopped excitedly. "They're back! Oh my gosh! They're back!"

The lady's excitement was just as great as his; she made shooing motions at him. "Go, run! Tell everybody that our heroes are back in town."

The man took off down the street, waving his arms and shouting for everyone's attention. People stuck their heads out of house windows and storefronts, then got caught up in the frenzy when they realized that the New Order had returned from their mission. A roar of a cheering crowd sounded, and soon people were flooding the streets. They swarmed the sidewalks on either side, eager for a chance to simply be near their heroes. Jess and her friends were legit celebrities.

Jess smiled at her fans, but then suddenly Axel shoved her out of the way to bask in the spotlight. She tumbled to the ground.

"You heard it right, folks!" he hooted, flexing his biceps. "The New Order of the Stone is back in town!"

Jess stumbled back to her feet and brushed gravel off her armor. She sighed. Oh, Axel. At least no-one had laughed at her when she fell down. Keeping her cool, she rejoined the group and led the procession down the street. All around her, people clamored for attention and shouted compliments.

"You guys are so cool."

"I like Olivia's armor the best."

"Psh! Petra's is cooler."

To think that less than a year ago, _no-one_ knew or cared about the names Jess, Olivia, Axel, or Petra. She knew she was supposed to stay modest, but it was awful hard with all the compliments people were giving.

She waved to the fans. "Gee, thanks, everyone. It's great to be home. Say, now that my friends and I are back, how's about we throw a little party?"

The crowd cheered. Some tossed hats in the air in excitement.

"Jess! I love you," someone yelled. "You're my favorite Order member!"

Abruptly a fan broke out of the crowd and rushed onto the street, stopping in front of Jess. It was the excited woman from before. She grinned so hard that her cheeks must have hurt, and held up her hand for a high-five.

"Welcome baaa-aack!" she trilled.

Jess was slightly taken aback, but she knew it would be rude not to high-five. She gave the fan's hand a smack and flashed them a winsome smile. Satisfied, the fan scurried over to her friend, looked at their hand in wonder, and babbled about how awesome that was.

"Di-di-di-did you see that?" she stammered. "Jess high-fived me! ME! I'm never gonna wash this hand again!"

"Ew," the friend remarked.

Unfazed, the fan continued, "She high-fives kinda hard, though. Must be because of the gauntlets for her armor. But it was so awesome. Oh, gosh, I feel a little lightheaded…"

The fan fainted on the spot. Jess was a little concerned, but the fan's friend managed to bring her back by fanning her and splashing some water on her face. Jess continued the procession. They were on their way to their hangout, the Order Hall, to deposit their finds from the temple.

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the air. It wasn't a fangirl screech; it was a real, frightened cry. All four New Order members whipped around to see who had screamed. When they did, they saw a bizarre structure looming over a small gathering of disgruntled citizens. It was a skull-shaped monstrosity of stone brick, held up on tentacle-like supports. A flow of bubbling lava poured out of its mouth.

"Uh, that wasn't a happy scream. Something's not right here," a concerned Olivia observed.

Petra stared at the...whatever that structure was supposed to be. "That wasn't there yesterday. It looks like a weird skull sitting on tentacles."

"And barfing lava," Olivia added. "Blech."

Jess was less concerned about the tastefulness of the design and more about the flow of molten rock pouring right out of the _thing's_ mouth and onto the street. Yes, the street where hundreds of ordinary citizens walked every day. The last thing she needed were reports about people getting burned to death by unregulated lava.

"Lava pouring out onto the street? That's so dangerous!" Jess complained, thrusting out her arms in frustration. "Someone could get burned!"

"Pssh," Axel scoffed.

"Didn't Community Planning pass that rule about regulations on lava in builds?" Olivia inquired.

"Yes. They did," Jess replied. "All right, who built this?"

She got her answer when someone yelled, "Not my fault! If someone gets burned, it's theirs for not being more careful!"

Their voice sounded familiar, but Jess couldn't place it right away. She and the others hurried over to the site of the build to make sense of the situation and intervene before it got any worse.

"Stop with the useless griping!" an old man with a beard snapped at the people, from his perch in the build. "In comparison to this glorious tower, your little injuries are inconsequential!"

Jess gaped as she recognized him.

Petra sighed. "Ivor. Of course it's Ivor."

"Oh! Hello, Jess!" Ivor called down to them. "Don't listen to those philistines. They just don't know art when they see it."

"It's a fire hazard," a frustrated old woman said to Jess. "Do you want someone getting burned if they get too close to this hideous thing?"

"Your face is an ugly hazard!" Ivor retaliated.

Jess sighed. "Ivor, why are you making trouble again?"

"I'm not making trouble," he protested. "I'm merely having a discussion with the local community. They seem to be cerebrally impaired at the moment."

The old woman piped up again. "This-this _thing_ has to come down now."

"Jess, listen to me please," Ivor pleaded. "I just want what anyone wants: a place to call my own. With loads of lava pouring out of it!"

Petra tugged at her hair. "I know you mean well, but your house wants to kill people."

Axel was oblivious to the controversy (or the danger) of the house, instead enchanted by the river of lava leaking from it. "Dude. You made a killer house."

"Exactly!" the annoying old lady snapped. "Killer. It's dangerous and it can't stand!"

"Oh, shut up!" Ivor yelled at her.

Jess frantically tried to come up with a compromise. "We could, um, try moving it somewhere else. Maybe out of the city limits? Somewhere where there's less chance of-"

"Move it?" Ivor scoffed. "Then the lava will make an even bigger mess. No can do, Jess. Sorry."

Jess's shoulders sagged. No simple compromise.

"It's your decision, Jess," the lady piped up once again. "We need to tear this down. Will you help?"

Ivor suddenly leapt from his perch, landed flawlessly on the ground (he had trained himself to fall from a height without injuring himself) and hurried up to Jess. In his excitement, he totally forgot about personal space and crowded her.

"It's my house, Jess," he said, desperately clinging to her shoulders. "Don't I have a right to build what I want, like everyone else?"

"Uh…" Jess droned, trying to think of what to say.

"They're just jealous. They don't have my creative vision. All they have is...blech... _Community Planning_."

Jess bit her lip, caught in a difficult decision. Granted, the lava house was dangerous. But didn't Ivor have a right to build what he wanted? She supposed it wasn't malicious. Ivor just liked to use lava, for whatever reason. Other people had built ridiculous things before, and Community Planning had left them alone, so why make an exception for this? But it was a fire hazard, wasn't it? Oh, hard decisions.

Jess spoke up to the crowd. "Okay, guys, work with me here. Ivor put a lot of time and thought into his build. I don't think it's right to tear it down just because we don't like how it looks. We gotta respect it just like we'd respect a house that wasn't, uh, dripping lava. Let's leave it alone."

People groaned in disappointment. Some even started to boo.

"We can find a workaround!" Jess promised.

"Ha-ha-ha!" Ivor gloated. "It stays. Long live my lava house. _Long live lava!_ Ha! Thanks, Jess. I knew there was _someone_ in this town who could be reasonable."

Disgruntled citizens walked past him, going back home. They gave him dirty looks as they passed him by. Olivia shook her head, disappointed that such a dangerous structure was going to stand, and a delighted Axel did a happy dance.

"Keep walking, you philistines," Ivor said to the people leaving. "That's right, keep walking! Take your anti-intellectualism and go!"

"It's a good thing you're a gracious winner," Petra said sarcastically.

"Hilarious," Ivor said equally as drily; to Jess he said, "It's been a while, Jess. Must've been a long mission. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"We're fresh from going to that temple you told us about," Jess explained. "The one in the jungle, y'know?"

"You did?" Ivor suddenly closed in on Jess, as if she had just told him a juicy conspiracy theory.

In case passersby were listening, he pretended to be having a much more mundane conversation: "You don't say, Jess! Oh, you're too funny. We should do lunch sometime. You can bring whatever you want, and I'll bring carrots."

Jess gave him a weird look.

He pulled her close and whispered, "You never know who's listening, Jess. We need to talk somewhere safer. Meet me in the Order Hall in 10 minutes. And bring whatever you found!"

Ivor let go of her and hurried away to do whatever it is an Ivor does all day. Stunned from his theatrics, Jess was frozen in place for a second. Petra walked up behind her and patted her on the back. Meanwhile, Axel tried to touch the lava pouring from the house, but Olivia batted his hand away.

"Okay," said Olivia. "If that, uh, house is going to stand, we should build a barrier to keep the lava from flowing all over the place. Maybe put a glass screen around it? For safety, you know."

"But not too safe," Axel chortled.

Olivia pulled him aside. "Let's go dig up some sand so we can make glass. When we build the barrier, you can be in charge of deciding what's the 'right amount' of safe."

"M'okay," he muttered as they headed off to do that.

To Jess, Olivia said, "We'll catch up with you after that."

"After this piece of art has the respect it deserves," Axel added.

Before they left, Jess wanted to compliment them for their action at the jungle temple. "Hey. You guys did really well last night."

"Yep. Not too bad," Axel replied.

"Thanks, Jess," Olivia said, ignoring Axel. "We should do that more often. It's fun."

"See you later!" Petra called after them.

Jess turned aside. "Let's go get Ivor."

So they did.

* * *

It was always very quiet in the Order Hall, almost as peaceful as a church. It was a fine building made of quartz, stone brick, and gold. Even though she had been in it many times, Jess still looked around admiringly at the treasures on display-all the goodies she and her friends had acquired on their adventures. Petra gazed it the stuff with intrigue as well. The first few things on display were small treasures like sponges, Boom Town banners, or Ghast tears. Then it worked its way up to more valuable items like Ender Pearls, diamonds, and music records. The raised part of the floor held the best treasure: the armor from Ivor's armoury, the Ender Dragon egg, and the purple Nether Star the Witherstorm had dropped. Today, however, someone whom Jess considered a treasure stood in the midst of the hall, curiously examining some of the shinies.

"Oh! Hi, Lukas!" Petra called when she saw him. "It's been a while, buddy."

"Hey, guys," he said, climbing down the stairs. "I was just checking out the Order Hall. This is one cool place. I'm impressed."

"Aww, it's great to see you, Lukas," Jess said, smiling at him. "I missed having you around."

"Missed you, too." He grinned back at her.

It was true. She had wanted him to join the New Order of the Stone after they defeated the Wither Storm. He totally deserved it, since he had worked so hard to help them. He had respectfully declined, though, saying that he felt he belonged with his old friends, the Ocelots.

But if the Ocelots were the Blaze Rods now…

And didn't Aiden say he ditched Lukas?

"Gee, would ya take a look at all that treasure," Lukas mused, glancing around the room. "I guess you've been pretty busy."

He glanced aside and caught sight of the Reuben memorial on the far wall. Specifically, it was a banner bearing Reuben's face, with the porkchop he dropped in a leather frame. A small light shone on it, and flowers were placed beneath it.

"Oh, wow," he said softly. "Reuben. You made a memorial for him."

"Yeah," Jess whispered.

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "How have you been doing?"

Jess sighed. "I still really, really miss him. I wake up every morning and think, hey, maybe he's just outside digging up carrots...but then I have to remember all over again that he's gone."

She felt tears in the corners of her eyes. She blinked them away.

Lukas swiped some hair out of his face, looking downcast. "Jess, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

It was as if a heavy quilt of sadness had been draped over the room. Petra leaned on one hip and looked at the floor. Jess's shoulders sagged.

"Okay, okay. I promise I didn't come to dampen everyone's day," Lukas spoke up. "I actually came because I wanted to talk to you about something. I had a weird encounter with Aiden. He was super ticked about you."

Petra sucked in a sharp breath. "Aiden. That punk."

Lukas upturned his hands. "Something you said or did really, really got to him."

Jess could tell that Lukas was having a hard time talking about Aiden. It must have stung to be dumped by his former friends. Lukas hadn't said much about getting ditched by the Ocelots-turned-Blaze Rods, but he clearly was affected by it.

"Yeah, he and his henchmen showed up at the temple last night. The New Order and the Blaze Rods are still in such _harmony_ ," she said, sarcasm palpable.

"He's a real charmer, ain't he?" Petra rolled her eyes.

"He's been so jealous of you guys ever since you defeated the Witherstorm and saved the world. He thought that _he_ should have been the hero."

"He told me the hero stuff was crap!" Jess blurted. "Is he not right in the head or something?"

Lukas shrugged. "It seems like that sometimes. When he kicked me out and took over the Ocel-erm, _Blaze Rods_ , he just...he seems a lot meaner than before. He's even pushing Maya and Gill around."

"You're right," Jess said, walking up the stairs. "He actually scared me a little last night. He made threats, he pushed Axel to the ground...he actually pulled a sword on us and demanded I hand over the treasure I found."

"Speaking of treasure," Lukas said, "what was the trinket that got him all riled up, anyway?"

"Lo and behold," Jess announced, pulling the enchanted flint and steel from her pocket. Lukas and Petra also walked up the steps to get a better look at it.

"Wow. Weird, I've never seen a blue flint and steel before. Does it have some kind of enchantment on it?"

"I don't know." Jess turned the pieces over in her hands. "For now, I'm going to show it to-"

Ivor suddenly was next to her. "You found it! Brilliant!"

"Gah!" the three kids yelped.

"Geez, thanks for the heart attack!" Petra complained. "Don't do that."

"Ivor! Don't sneak up on me like that." Jess put a hand on her chest and tried to get her breathing back to normal. "That scared me."

"I'm sorry. It's just that-augh, it's so exciting! This is a grand discovery! The grandest of this era! And you have it right there, holding it in your hands."

"What makes it so special? I mean, it's got an enchantment, but it's just a flint and steel under that, right?"

"Wrong!" Ivor snapped. "It's not just 'an enchantment.' It's so much more than that. It's no ordinary magic. This is the work of a group of builders. An old group, a group that existed even before the Order of the Stone."

"Wow," Petra commented. Whether that referred to the 'old builders' or just Ivor's histrionics was unclear.

"I get it, it's special," Jess said, exasperated. "But what does it _do_?"

Ivor scratched behind his ear and admitted, "I, uh, don't really know."

Jess glared at him.

"Well, don't be upset," he said. "If we don't know, that means we get to experiment to find out. For honor! For glory! For _science!_ "

"Sure, Ivor." Petra gave Jess a 'can you believe this weirdo' look.

"Besides, it's already confirmed my basic theories. This proves that there really were Old Builders, and what's more, you've found their temple. That means we're close to finally finding the legendary Eversource!"

"Here we go. You came just in time for a performance, Lukey." Petra elbowed Lukas. He winced in pain. Petra didn't know her own power sometimes.

"Don't call me Lukey," he muttered through the pain.

"The Ever what now?" Jess blinked, confused. "How legendary can it be if we've never heard of it?"

"The _Eversource!_ " Ivor snapped. "It's called the Eversource! Ugh!"

"Okee-dokee. Are you doing to, uh, tell us what that is, or are you just going to keep saying its name?" Lukas fiddled with the strap on his silver goggles.

Ivor started pacing and rubbing his hands together. "Legend has it that the Eversource was some kind of artifact the Old Builders owned. They say it is an object of unlimited power, because it can create unlimited valuable resources. Imagine the building potential of that!"

Ivor was acting ridiculous, but Jess had to admit that he had a point with the building potential of this Eversource gizmo, if indeed it existed. Sometimes a shortage of a certain kind of block or item forestalled progress on a build and made people short-tempered and angry. And who had to deal with those angry people but the resident leader, Jess of the New Order of the Stone? An unlimited supply of resources, if well managed, could prevent such contentions.

"I've never heard of the Old Builders or their Eversource before," Petra remarked. "You learn something new every day. Especially when you're an adventurer."

"Adventure!" Ivor cheered.

"All right. So we have this magic flintensteel that may have belonged to these Old Builder characters. But how will that get us to the Eversource? Do you know where it is?"

"I was part of the Order, Jess." Ivor stroked his black beard. "I've traveled the world. And yet, in all of my travels, only that temple was concrete proof of the Old Builders. If we find any more links to the Eversource, that will surely be the place."

"He does have a point," Petra admitted. "It's a good link. And I mean, I'm always up for an adventure. Old Builders, an Eversource, an ancient mystery...it sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Splendid!" Ivor clapped his hands and hopped up and down like a child. "I'm going to go pack my adventuring gear posthaste."

With that, he scurried off to pack his baggage. Petra paused, then turned to Jess with a perturbed look.

"Waitwaitwaitiwaitwait. Don't tell me Ivor's coming with us!"

Jess smiled sheepishly. What could she do about it? Besides, having Ivor along might be fun and maybe a bit helpful, too.

Lukas piped up. "Sounds like you guys have some excitement ahead of you. I guess it's time for me to scoot."

He started to walk away, but Petra grabbed the back of his shirt to stop him. "Oh, no, you don't. I need a buffer between me and Ivor. That's gonna be you, blond guy."

"Okay," Lukas said meekly.

Jess cracked her knuckles. "Okay, New Order! Let's go!"

They sprinted out of the Order Hall, following Ivor.

* * *

Jess was a little disappointed about having to go back to the jungle so soon. She barely got any time to sit down and recover from her first adventure before having to start on another one. Ivor led the way through the jungle, all the while hopping and bopping like an excited little kid. Petra kept her distance from him. Lukas wasn't used to traveling in a jungle; occasionally he would mutter that it was too hot or the air was too humid or that there were too many bugs flying around and bothering him. Pushing aside an endless stream of bushes and shrubbery, they trekked back to the old temple. When they finally arrived (scaring a trio of ocelots), Ivor was ecstatic.

"Okay, Lukas," Petra said. "I know monsters don't come out during the day, but there are lots of dark caves they could be hiding in. Could you keep an eye out for us?"

"Uh-huh," Lukas replied. He had a bow and sword with him, so he was prepared.

"Splendiferous scenery!" Ivor gushed from the front of the line. He danced a little happy dance.

Petra rolled her eyes. "Why did we let him come with? I mean, if he's so excited, that's good for him, but he definitely wouldn't be my choice of companion."

"Petra, don't be so hard on him. He's a riot! He makes me laugh," Jess replied, then quickly corrected herself. "In a good way, I mean. Not laughing _at_ him or anything. That's mean."

"Okay. It's his journey, I guess," Petra said with a shrug.

"These trees are _enormous!_ " Ivor thrust his arms to the air and waved them around. "It's glorious!"

Petra gave Jess a Look and rolled her eyes. "It gets pesky every now and then. I don't want to babysit a grown man for this adventure."

He ran ahead in excitement when the temple came into view. "A marvel of architecture. Ancient and exquisite!"

Jess nodded. "I'm glad your happy. You're finally enjoying yourself."

Ivor's eyebrows perked in panic. "Who is smiling? I'm not smiling. Smiling is for ninnies."

They group filed into the temple. Now that it was daytime, the lighting and atmosphere were drastically different. At night, the temple had seemed lively, dark, and unpredictable. In the daylight, however, it seemed dormant and tame. A lot less exciting. Unless one was Ivor, of course. Ivor could have been excited in an empty gray room if it were leading him to this fabled Eversource. A light breeze fluttered the vines dangling from the ceiling, and golden bars of sunlight punched through holes in the stone walls.

Jess voiced her thoughts. "It sure looks different during the day."

"Even so, we must be on guard," Ivor instructed, snapping back into serious mode. "There could be a trap anywhere."

They dispersed to investigate the temple and find a clue or two.

"I know, Ivor. I was here last night," Petra called over her shoulder.

"Petra, young lady-" Ivor began, sounding as if he was going to scold her, but then switched tones: "-are you as excited as I am? What about you, blond guy?"

"Yeah, I don't really think that's possible," Petra responded.

"Don't call me Blond Guy!" Lukas protested.

While that conversation was going on, Jess wandered over to one of the lava flows. It was one of the lava channels from the puzzle. Curious, she gave the lever a flick. Nothing happened. Perhaps the mechanism had broken? The lava had damaged part of the temple when the stairs burned. She walked over to the other end of the temple. But first, she stopped to talk to Petra.

"Is there some secret part of this temple we missed?" Jess asked. "How could we have missed an entire extra area?"

"Don't feel so bad," Petra consoled. "We were fighting a ton of monsters, remember? I don't blame you for missing a detail or two."

Petra went back to poking around the sealed door in the floor, and Jess went back to pacing around the temple in search of a clue. She noticed a shaft of light shining into the temple behind Ivor. For a second, she thought it was a heavenly halo (was it a divine sign?) but then she realized it was sunlight coming through a hole in the ceiling. She glanced up.

She scratched the back of her neck. "I don't remember that being there last night."

Well, she wasn't going to stand here and stare at it all day. A string of vines hung from it, providing a way up.

"Hey, guys!" she called to her friends. "I found a way up."

"Excellent. We'll be right behind you," Ivor said.

Jess swung up on the vines and started climbing. This climb was much easier than last night's, because she had neither spiders from above nor fire from below to deal with. She was climbing for curiosity, not her life. That was much more ideal.

She stepped onto the wooden platform making up the floor of the second level and the ceiling of the first. "Do you guys think the Eversource thingy will be up here?"

"It's hard to say one way or another, Jess," Ivor replied, his voice muffled under the floor. "The legends say that the Old Builders hid it away due to its terrible power."

Jess wondered if Ivor wasn't just making up these "legends" on the spot. She hoped she and her friends weren't running in circles. On its second floor, the temple didn't have any windows. There were fewer vines. The only real prominent feature was a lone pressure plate in the middle of the floor. Jess was a little wary of it, fearing it might trigger a trap. A pressure plate in plain sight was usually suspect.

While Ivor continued to chatter in the background, Jess approached it and bent down to examine it. After a little bit, she decided she was prepared for the consequences and pressed the plate down with her foot. When she did so, an arch built of quartz and gold pushed out of the wall. It looked almost like a decorated quartz version of a Nether portal, albeit unlit.

Ivor heard the grinding noises when the arch was pushed out; he yelled, "Jess! What do you see?" When he climbed up to the second floor and got a look at it himself, he gasped in wonder.

"Is it some kind of portal" Lukas wondered aloud.

"It doesn't look like any kind of portal I know," Jess said. "Where would it go?"

Ivor shrugged. "I haven't an idea."

It gave Jess a wonderful idea. She had just the sort of trinket in her pocket for activating portals. If a regular old flint and steel could light up Nether portals, who knew what fancy things a magic flintensteel could do?

"Here we go." She struck the flint to the steel.

The portal lit in a spray of bright blue sparks. It lit with such force that it blew the four of them backwards. They landed on their backs and bounced against the stone. The flintensteel went flying out of Jess's hands; the pieces rolled across the floor.

When they settled, a different pair of hands was ready to reclaim them.

Aiden, having followed close on Jess's trail, bent down and scooped the prize off the floor. He traced his fingers over the flint and steel eagerly. He could feel the magic pulsing within it.

"That was thoughtful of you to bring this back to me," Aiden purred. "Thanks, Jess."

Jess rolled up to sitting position and spun around to see her enemy. Gill and Maya were right at Aiden's heels, as always. Her own friends got up on their feet and whirled around to face Aiden as well. Petra and Lukas glared poisonously at him. Ivor looked horrified to see the treasure in his hands instead of their rightful owner's.

"I knew you were good for something," Aiden continued. "Not much, of course, but something."

"Oh, no, Aiden. You have no idea what you're doing. It's too powerful to fool around with it. Give it back."

Inwardly, she was panicking. What kind of trouble could he get into if he used that? Or worse, if he somehow got his hands on the even more powerful Eversource?

"Big words from the girl who got knocked on her tush trying to use it," Aiden chortled. "You should just step aside. The Blaze Rods are gonna use that portal."

"No freaking way!" Petra snapped.

Lukas shook his head fiercely. "No. You're not gonna do this. We won't let you."

Jess smiled at Lukas. She was glad to have him backing her up. He was willing to stand against his old "friends" to protect his true friends.

Aiden snapped his fingers. "Blaze Rods? Clear me a path."

Maya and Gill instantly drew their swords. In response, the New Order pulled out their own weapons. Jess didn't know why they bothered. It was two Blaze Rods versus three New Order members (Ivor didn't count, because he seemed to be unarmed.)

Gill suddenly rushed at Jess. He was surprisingly fast-reflexed. He made a wide swing at her; Jess bent over backwards to dodge it. He wouldn't give up and answered with more offensive swings. Jess blocked them with skill. She had trained well, but it seemed that Gill had as well. Meanwhile, Petra dealt with Maya and Lukas faced off with Aiden.

Gill slammed his sword hard into Jess's. She tensed her arm muscles to hold him back. Either the hard diamond or the enchantment whined as the swords clashed. Jess managed to outmatch Gill's force and bring him down. He flopped to the floor. But then he suddenly kicked Jess in the gut and downed her. While Petra and Lukas were distracted by Jess getting hurt, Aiden hurried toward the portal.

Hanging halfway out of it, he shouted to his cronies, "Come on! This is our steal!"

Maya and Gill pushed past Jess and her friends, sliding into the portal before anyone could stop them.

"Darn it!" Petra growled. "Those little cheats."

"We can't let them slip away," Ivor said, pulling a splash harming potion out of his pocket. "Especially if they're after the Eversource."

"What about Axel and Olivia?" Jess stammered.

Ivor shook his head. "No time. We need to get to the Eversource before Aiden does."

"Usually I wouldn't agree with Ivor," Petra said, "but he's right. Aiden's nothing but trouble. We have to stop him."

"Okay, you're right. Go."

Lukas and Petra were the first ones through the portal; Ivor was close behind. Jess brought up the back. She dashed into the blue goo of the portal, not allowing herself to have any second thoughts.

What had started out as a fun adventure had suddenly become a critical mission.

They _had_ to find the Eversource now, or risk having it fall into malicious hands.


	3. Friends in High Places

Instantly, Jess was falling. She fell through the open air, her arms flailing out at her sides. At least there was a solid surface below; she fell onto a small dirt island. Unfortunately, she also plowed into Ivor when she landed. The force of the collision almost knocked him off the edge, putting him in danger of falling into the empty air below. He had one foot on the edge; the other dangled over oblivion. Jess grabbed his arm before he fell off.

"Oh gosh! I've got you, I've got you," she said as she, with great effort, hoisted him back onto land.

She leaned over and gasped, both from exhaustion and stress. "Okay, that was scary. You're heavier than you look."

She felt dumb as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Now what kind a comment was that?

Ivor scowled. "Excuse me? My body is perfectly proportionate. I'm in my proper weight zone for my height, thank you very much."

"You're fine," Lukas reassured him, walking up to him and patting him on the back.

"For now at least." Petra scanned their surroundings, and the results weren't ideal.

All four of them stood on a small, circular-shaped island of dirt. It floated in the middle of literally nothing. Up, down, right, left, and everywhere in between was a cloudless summer sky. Only a bright yellow sun broke up the monotony of blue. Far below them, a bank of clouds clustered, and it was anyone's guess as to what lay below that. The wind roared around them, having nothing to block its flow.

"We'd best stay away from the edge," Ivor advised.

No-one could disagree with that. But now Jess's mind was flooding with questions. "Where the heck are we?" was a big one, as was "How are we going to get back?"

But the one she finally asks was, "Now where are the Blaze Rods? Shouldn't they be on this island, too?"

"Maybe they fell off the edge," Lukas said hopefully. He was still bitter about them kicking him to the curb.

"I can't see a thing all around," Petra sighed. "There's nothing here but this island."

"Did Aiden know about this?" Jess backed away from the edge. "The Eversource, the portal, this crazy sky island place? Did he know about any of this stuff?"

"If I didn't, I don't see why he would," Ivor replied. "But he definitely knows now. If he isn't free-falling to the Void right now, that is."

"I wonder what that must feel like," Lukas mused. "Do you just keep falling forever? Or do you die eventually?"

Jess shrugged. "I'd rather not find out."

With that question floating on the air, the four friends started to wander around the island. It was a flat plain of grass, and no bigger than the floorspace of an average cottage. Besides grass, there was nothing to be found on it, nothing so much as a single tree or flower. Jess got a sinking feeling in her stomach. She wondered if she and her friends had made a really bad choice by coming here. Gingerly she walked up to an edge and peered over it again.

When she did, she let out a gasp. A city, of all things, floated serenely a hundred meters or so below. It sparkled in the sunlight; even from a distance, she could see gleaming iron and glittering gold. The city was a pretty cluster of towers and little buildings.

"Wow! Hey, guys. Come see this," she called.

"What is it?" they asked as they approached. Ivor was the first to get there.

"Exquisite!" he murmured as he saw it. "It looks so heavenly. Is that a city?"

"I think so," Jess replied. "Not super sure, but that's my guess."

He started hopping up and down in excitement, probably thinking about the Eversource again. Lukas and Petra looked a little more skeptical. They weren't sure what to make of the floating city.

"It looks like something out of a storybook," Petra observed. "Like the giant's castle in the sky or something."

"It's pretty," Jess said. "Look at all that gold and iron."

"Gold and iron!" Ivor squealed. "I'll bet anything that this is where we'll find the Eversource."

"Yeah, but we still have to get there first," Lukas pointed out. "It's way down there, and we're on a tiny dirt island."

Petra bit her lip. "He's right. This could be a problem. Scatch that-this is really a problem. We're stuck."

"Well, this stinks." Lukas kicked a dirt clod off the edge. "We jumped through that portal and found a city in the sky, but we can't get to it because we're stuck on a dirt island."

Jess twirled some hair between her fingers, thinking. "Couldn't we build over there?"

"How?" Lukas questioned.

Ivor rolled his eyes. "We could build a _bridge_. Haven't you ever heard of one?"

Ivor must have struck a sensitive note, because Lukas squinted at him and let out a little grunt. It was probably because Lukas was a seasoned builder, and Ivor had seriously insulted his talents by suggesting he'd never heard of one of the simplest structures of them all.

"I've heard of bridges," blondie said stiffly. "I'm just wondering if we'll have enough blocks. It's a long way down and out."

While Lukas talked to Ivor, Jess once more went to the edge and peered down. To her pleasant surprise, the island was more than a layer or two of dirt. It was actually a cone-shaped island reaching a good length down. If they could dig it up, they'd have a decent amount to build a bridge to the island.

"What an astute observation, Lukas," Ivor mumbled. "Never could have deduced that myself."

"Beware Ivor the Grump!" Petra declared with a goofy chuckle.

"We'll have enough dirt, Lukey. More than enough dirt."

Lukas noticeably didn't mind Jess calling him Lukey. "Really? We will?"

"Island's bigger than it looks. If we dig down to the bottom layer, we should have enough to bridge over. We might have to build a little bridge, but it will work."

The other three shrugged and complied with Jess's idea. With the sun's heat beating on their backs, they ripped up the dirt and shoveled it into their pockets. Gradually they worked their way down to the bottom-most layer of the island, a tiny square of dirt no bigger than four square meters. First they had an excess of space and not enough blocks; now they had an excess of dirt and no space. All four of them were crushed onto the little square, struggling not to fall off.

"Would you stop pushing, Petra?" Ivor growled.

"That's not me," she protested. "It's Lukas."

"I'm keeping away from the edge," Lukas defended. "I don't wanna fall off."

"Everything's edge!" she retorted.

"Guys, shh! You sound like arguing kids," Jess scolded them. "We're on the same level as the city now. Let's build our bridge."

They set out building their bridge, standing shoulder to shoulder in a line. At first their bridge was four meters wide, but as they went on, their supply of dirt ran low and they had to narrow the bridge to one meter wide. Instead of side by side, they switched to walking in single file. At last they reached the gates of the city.

"Okay-dokee, we're here," Jess said as the placed the last chunk of dirt. "Everyone off the bridge."

They stepped off the bridge and onto some purple wool laid in front of the gates. Petra checked to make sure that Ivor and Lukas were behind her, and caught sight of an interesting little extra thing that Ivor had built on the bridge.

"Ivor. Really?" she groaned, facepalming.

He had packed the dirt into the shape of a skull. Which would have been bad enough, even if he hadn't poured lava on its eyes. Now there was an ugly dirt skull with tears of lava glaring back at them.

"It's in honor of my dear lava house," Ivor chirped. "Long live lava!"

"Bring Ivor along, you said," Petra muttered to Jess. "It will be helpful having him around, you said."

Jess could only shrug in response. They didn't get very far before being stopped again, though. Petra wasn't the only one who noticed Ivor's tacky build.

"You...you built something," a man behind them gasped. They spun around to see him. He had shaved hair and wore a clean white shirt. He gaped in horror at the lava skull.

"I know. So tacky, right?" Petra asked.

"That's against the law!" he said. "You broke the law."

"What?" Jess and her friends started to walk toward him. Lukas and Petra squinted suspiciously at him, while Ivor smirked mischievously, clearly feeding off the man's anxiety. Either that, or he was proud that his lava skull had made such an impact.

"What do you mean, that's against the law?" Petra snapped.

"I-I don't...it can't...You…" he stammered. "Who are you people?"

Jess figured it was worth a shot. "Hey, mister, have you seen three little punks in leather jackets around here? The jerks call themselves the Blaze Rods. Have you seen 'em?"

"I can't talk to you!" he blurted.

Jess was confused. "But you are talking to us-"

"You weren't supposed to build that. Unauthorized building is against the law." He rocked on his feet.

"Wait, what?" Petra took two steps closer to him. "That's a law? People can't _build_ here?"

He backed up. "One of Sky City's most important laws. Building without permission is almost as severe as murder."

"That is preposterous!" Ivor scoffed. "It makes no sense at all."

"I dunno what to tell you people. You can't do it." He started backing away.

"Wait, don't go," Jess cut in. "At least tell us why this is the law. It's not just there for no reason, right?"

The man wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead. "I'm sorry, but you people are making me very nervous. First there were those other foreigners here, and now you...It's triggering my anxiety. I should go."

"Other foreigners?" Lukas asked, stepping forward. "There were other people here? Where did they go?"

"Uhh...Ah...They, uh, went to the inn! Sorry, I need to go."

He ran away.

"Hey! Don't go!" Jess called after him, but it was too late. She heard the guy say something about being very busy, and then he was gone.

"Lost him," Petra muttered. "Great."

They stepped through the gates and into the city. The ground was solid iron, and some water ditches for irrigation ran parallel to the sidewalk.

"My word," Ivor said. "I hope the other people we talk to won't be so nervous."

Jess didn't respond. She was too busy gawking at the sight of the city. It was even prettier now that she was in among it. The afternoon sun gleamed on the iron walls and golden dome of a palace, the largest structure in sight. Small houses made of clean smooth stone dotted the plaza in front of it. A verdant vegetable garden bloomed in the middle of the city. A handful of people peacefully mulled about the plaza, talking with each other or standing in line outside some of the buildings. The whole city felt very peaceful and quiet.

"What a sight!" Lukas breathed. "I wonder how long it took to build all this."

"It's so beautiful," Jess sighed.

"Ah, yes," Ivor agreed. "Clearly the Eversource has wonderful powers. Oh, to be holding it in my hands right now! Ah-ha!"

"Ivor," Petra scolded. "Chill out. We haven't even found it yet."

"I know, I know!" he snapped. "I'm just excited, that's all."

"Gee, I'd have _never_ thought!"

"Now we know that we _really_ need to make sure that thing stays out of Aiden's mitts," Lukas said. "If it's capable of this much...I don't want to think what that crazypants could do with it."

"And so we need to get it before he does," Petra said. "That will keep his slimy little hands off it."

"It's a macguffin plot classic!" Ivor interjected.

Jess didn't even pretend to know what he was talking about. "That nervous dude mentioned an inn. We should focus on finding that first."

"That's a good plan," Lukas said. "Let's do it."

They nodded, then dispersed to hunt for the inn. They also wanted to explore a little. This was an intriguing place, and they wanted to make the most of their adventure here. Petra wandered over to the steps of the palace, admiring the shiny gold, while Ivor went to talk to some of the locals. Jess wanted to find the inn first, but got distracted by two small buildings right next to each other. One held one crafting table and the other held one furnace. That was it. One crafting table and one furnace for the at least ten people apiece lined up to use them. What an inefficient system!

As Jess walked over to investigate, she overhead Ivor having an interesting conversation with a local.

" _Hello!"_ Ivor shouted, loudly and slowly, to a random man. " _It...is...nice...to...meet...you!_ "

The guy rubbed his ears. "Ouch. I'm not deaf and I'm not stupid, you know."

"Oh." Ivor looked embarrassed. "Sorry."

Jess rolled her eyes and walked up to the crafting table building. A significant line of people stood outside it, waiting for their turn to use the table. A guard was posted there, making sure they came one at a time.

"Well gee," Jess commented. "This is an awfully popular crafting table. Don't they have their own tables at home?"

"Excuse me, ma'am," the guard said. "You will have to wait your turn in line." He gently pushed her away from the table as the next person approached.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't know." Jess walked away from it.

To the other patrons, the guard said, "Everybody, everybody, please be patient. Your turn will come eventually. We want to be efficient, so please have your materials ready as you come to the table."

People started shuffling through their pockets and pulling out crafting implements. Jess noticed that they had very basic stuff on hand: sticks, wheat, wooden planks, cobblestones, coal chunks, and the like. One man wearing an apron seemed particularly eager for his turn; he hopped up and down in agitation.

"Aw, shucks," he muttered. "I knew I shouldn't have waited this long."

"What's the matter?" Jess asked him.

"All I want is just to bake some bread for dinner," the man moaned. "I waited too long and now look at the line! I'm gonna be here forever!"

"Aww. That stinks," she said. "How come there's only one crafting table here? Why don't you just use one of your own? Then you could have your bread right away."

Suddenly the guy scowled as if Jess had just insulted his mother.

"What?" she asked incredulously. "Was it something I said?"

"Look, lady. You and I both know that making your own crafting table is against the law. Don't talk about insurgence to me. I want to be a law-abiding citizen of Sky City."

Jess tried to keep from letting her jaw drop open. First there was the law about not building, and now there was also a law about not crafting? What kind of insane place was this? Jess needed to know who the autocrat was that ran this place, because they needed someone to give them a lesson on basic human decency. What kind of dictator didn't let their citizens do the natural and necessary actions of building and crafting?

Passing the crafting table building, Jess paused for a look at the furnace building. Like the crafting table, there was only one furnace there, and it was surrounded by iron bars. It looked like a little prison cell. No-one was using the furnace. A guard stood by, arms crossed behind his back. He clearly took his job seriously.

"Hello," she said to him.

"Whoa-ho, hold it right there, missy. I can't have you use the furnace now if you're not on schedule. Did you schedule for one of the time slots this afternoon? Let me check." He pulled out a clipboard and shuffled through the pages. "Let see...uh, Dale made ten stone blocks. Yep, that went very well. Melissa cooked a ste-"

Jess interrupted him. "Why do you keep the furnace locked up? Did it do something wrong?"

She chuckled at her joke, but the guard was unimpressed. "Appointments must be arranged by speaking to the Founder. Have a good day."

Jess grunted in disappointment and walked away, muttering about what a dictatorship this place was. Because of her leadership position in her own community, she had a nice knowledge of politics, and she could tell that this was not an ideal society. It looked pretty, but the treatment of its people could see some improvement. She'd seen enough crafting and smelting buildings. She wanted to find the inn. She walked around the community garden. She turned left at one point and walked into a portion of the city shaded by tall buildings. She grinned when she saw a sign on a building that said "MILO'S INN." A middle-aged man with curly blonde hair and a mustache leaned on the wall by the door. Another man was talking to him. They spoke in whispers and glanced around suspiciously, as if they were up to something illicit. Jess snuck up to them to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"I've got the stuff," the other man whispered, pulling a bundle of sticks from his pocket. "I know this is more than the legal limit, so-"

"Just give them to me," Mr. Mustache hissed, swiping them from his hand. "I'll take care of it. Now shoo before someone sees us."

The other guy ran off. Mr. Mustache noticed Jess and immediately played cool, leaning against the wall. He smiled nervously and adjusted his beret hat, trying to look innocent.

"Howdy!" he said to Jess. "Welcome to my inn. How can I help you?"

Jess was a little confused and didn't respond right away. Okay. so the guy called it his inn. He must be Milo.

Milo kept jabbering: "I see. I'm not sure what the social mores is in your culture, but here, we consider it impolite to stare. Especially when people are doing insignificant and innocuous things. Like just leaning on walls and enjoying the nice weather! Ha-ha!"

Jess wasn't sold by his act. "Hey, um, what were you doing just then? With the whispering and the secrecy and stuff? Are you an item dealer?"

"Hush-shh! What kind of nonsense talk is that? I'm just a common innkeeper." Milo's eyes went wide with panic when he saw a guard walking nearby.

"That's not suspicious at _all_ ," Jess said thinly.

"Suspicious? I wouldn't think so."

"I dunno, Milo, but you seem pretty shady to me, and it's not just because you're standing in the shadow of that building. Don't protest. It just makes you look shadier. Just sayin'."

"I did not ask for your input on my supposed shadiness," Milo said stiffly. "May you please leave me alone now? I'm rather busy today. I have an inn to manage, errands to run, and all that."

Jess shrugged and abruptly changed the subject. "I hear some dodgy kids want to get their mitts on the Eversource. Do you know anything about that?"

Milo narrowed his eyes. "Are you interrogating me? I don't see what ground a foreigner has to accuse a local of being an accomplice to crimes…"

"Just answer the question. I'm not accusing you of anything. I want to know."

"Some nerve you have, young lady." Milo crossed his arms. "First you accost me to accuse me of dealing items, then you call me shady, and now you think that I'm a person of interest in an attempted theft of Sky City's most precious resource...What has made me your emotional punching bag today?"

Jess rubbed the back of her neck, feeling bad. Okay, she was probably being too hard on Milo. But still...she wanted answers, and he was their best lead so far.

"I'm going to tell you what I told the other outsiders: I've got nothing to help you with. Now please leave me alone."

Unfortunately for Milo, he didn't get to be left alone. Petra, Lukas, and Ivor had caught up to Jess.

Petra tapped Jess's shoulder. "Oh. Is this our guy, Jess?"

"Does he know where the Blaze Rods are?" Ivor asked.

Milo glanced at them all, dumbfounded. "There are more of you? Where are you crazy people coming from?"

"Hasn't he told you anything?" Ivor growled to Jess. "He's supposed to be our lead."

"Yeah, what gives?" Petra put her hands on her hips. "Is he hiding them in his inn or something?"

"You and your friends have no right to interrogate me like this," the innkeeper complained.

Jess sighed. "It's okay, Milo. We aren't interrogating you. You can trust us. We're not going to get you in trouble. I promise. We just want your help."

"Okay, fine! If it satisfies you so you leave me alone, I did talk to some kids who call themselves the Blaze Rods. I think the ringleader of that little club is called-ah, I forget his name-Cayden, I think?"

"Aiden," Lukas corrected.

"Ah. Right. Aiden. It's true; he did talk to me earlier today, and yes, he wanted to know about the Eversource. I didn't tell him anything we don't already know, because that _is_ all I know-that it's in the palace with the Founder. I'm not privy to any special secrets."

Petra clenched her hands into fists. "That conniving creeper."

"I was not fond of them, either," Milo said. "That Aiden fellow-he is very unkind. He wouldn't even let his friends speak. I disliked him from the minute I saw him."

"Do you know where he is now?" Jess asked.

"They went to the palace, and that is the last I saw of them. For now, at least."

"Thanks for your time, Milo," Jess said. "I'm sorry for accusing you of stuff."

"All's forgiven," he replied.

Just then, the captain of the guard came marching down the street, shouting an announcement to everyone within earshot. "Attention, everyone! The Founder has called a meeting in the town square. Attendance is mandatory."

"Slime blocks," Milo cursed. "I hate mandatory meetings. Excuse me."

He pushed his way past Jess and her friends, grumbling about "useless interruptions" when he had innkeeping duties to attend to.

"That's odd. What could the emergency be?" Ivor stroked his beard.

"Let's find out." Jess led the way back to the town square. A horde of people had assembled at the foot of the palace stairs. They murmured and whispered amongst themselves, spreading rumors. Jess caught a few strands of conversation.

"...they built it all the way to here…"

"...Founder is looking for four people, I think."

"But what about those three that came before…"

"...did they build something?"

"...Founder has harsh punishments for illegal building…"

Instantly an uncomfortable feeling washed over Jess. She and her friends were the reason for the emergency meeting! What could they do? There was no way the Founder, whoever he or she was, would have mercy on them, even if they hadn't known building was against the law. Oh, this wasn't good.

Four guards stood on the steps, being the escorts for the Founder. And then the Founder emerged from the palace. She was a tall, domineering woman in a golden gown and a golden crown. Jess was shocked at how much the woman looked like her-they had the same pale complexion, green eyes, and raven hair. Had they stood shoulder to shoulder, one would have probably mistaken the Founder for Jess's mother.

Bad turned worse as another person joined the Founder. It was Aiden. He gave the Founder a sickeningly friendly smile, and she smiled back. Ugh. So Aiden was friendly with the Founder, the most powerful person in Sky City, and the Founder was _not_ friendly with Jess. Bad. Bad. Bad.

"This crowd is making me nervous," Ivor said. "I think I have a touch of agoraphobia."

"People of Sky City!" the Founder addressed the crowd. "I apologise for interrupting your day. However, it was requisite, for an emergency has come upon us. A crime has been committed."

Gasps rose up among the crowd. Jess pulled off her gauntlet and gnawed her fingernails in anxiety.

"Who did it? What did they do?" someone cried out. "Are we in danger?"

Other people started babbling about "danger" and "criminals at large." The Founder waved her hands at them to calm them down.

"Please, please, do not panic. A calm demeanour is necessary in the face of an emergency. Only a few hours ago, foreigners built a bridge into our fair city, creating this terrible eyesore!"

The guards pulled open the gates, putting the dirt bridge-and the hideous lava skull-on public display. People gasped in shock and disgust.

Jess looked around fearfully. If the Founder found out the bridge-builders were her and her friends...uh oh.

"These foreigners may or may know it, but you people of Sky City know full well that doing so is an egregious violation of our most sacred, most important law: No. Unauthorized. Building."

Milo must have sensed Jess's discomfort. "You seem very anxious all of a sudden, Jess and-wait a minute."

"No, Milo, please," Jess said. "Shh."

He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Was that you? Did you build that?"

Jess didn't know what to say. Confessing to Milo seemed a really bad idea-he kind of hated her guts from how she behaved earlier; there was no guarantee he wouldn't march right up to the Founder and rat her out. The fact that the people around her were crying out about how atrocious the illegal builders were and chanted for the Founder to throw them in the dungeon for eternity...that didn't help, either.

"How were we supposed to know it was illegal?" she hissed. "We were stranded. We didn't have a choice. And it was just a bridge. What's so terrible about that?"

"This is a load of zombie flesh," Petra growled.

Meanwhile, Aiden leaned over and whispered something to the Founder. He drew back, chuckling. The Founder nodded, informed on the identities of the criminals. She clapped her hands and made another announcement:

"Ahem. Jess, I know you are here among us. I advise you to surrender yourself now and spare extra trouble. I have been informed of your identity. You may be ignorant of my city's most precious law, but that won't spare you punishment. Do not try to hide. Sky City is too small for that. I will find you."

Jess gulped. She felt a drop in her gut as the guards descended the steps and waded into the crowd, searching for her and her friends. Also, she was mentally cursing Aiden out for what he'd done. That dirty, conniving, worthless little-

"It is crucial that we get the Eversource," Ivor said. "This is the fastest way of doing so."

"Getting arrested? That's a stupid idea," Petra hissed.

Milo offered an alternative. "Wait. Don't give yourself up to her judgement. I can help you."

"How?"

"If you come with me, I can help you formulate a plan. If we can just slip away-"

Too late. Ivor suddenly started jumping up and down, waving his arms, and shouting at the top of his lungs. Jess's jaw dropped open in shock. What was he _doing?_ He was _trying_ to get arrested?

"I'm right here!" he hooted. "I built the bridge! And the lava skull! Long live lava, _sic semper tyrannis_ , and all that!"

Petra panicked. "Ivor! Are you cracked in the skull? She's not going to help us!"

The guards were on Ivor in an instant, grabbing his arm to tow him over to the Founder. All around, it was chaos. People were yelling, guards were attempting to subdue both the crowd and the prisoners, and Ivor was being overly dramatic.

"That's unneeded roughness, sir," Ivor said to the guard grabbing his arm.

Milo and Petra backed into the alley. "Jess, come on!"

Jess panicked, realizing that she would have to make a very prompt decision. The Founder's comment that Sky City was small stuck with her. If she tried to run away and the Founder's goons caught her, that would make her in even worse standing with the ruler of Sky City. Besides, she didn't want Ivor to be alone and at the mercy of the Founder. She decided to help Ivor.

"Hey, don't do that," she said to the guard grabbing Ivor by the arm. "We did nothing wrong."

Lukas didn't want to leave Jess behind either, apparently. He stood next to her, ready to defend her in case things got ugly.

"I've got your back," he whispered.

"Thanks," she said quickly.

"Jess, I greatly appreciate your help," Ivor piped up; then he got angry at the guard. "Would you stop pulling on my robe? You'll tear the sleeve."

"You have apprehended them, guards? Splendid. Bring them here."

The guards wasted no time. They took Jess, Ivor, and Lukas into custody, wrenching their hands behind their backs.

"I'm sorry, Jess, but I have to go!" Petra called over her shoulder as she ran away with Milo. "I'll be back to help you. I promise!"

Then the guards goaded their prisoners to go forward, leading them to the Founder. The crowd parted to let them through. On both sides, the townspeople gave them dirty looks. Several hecklers jeered at them and insulted them as they went past. Jess's face went red with shame. She was a hero in one world and a criminal in another.

"Come along, come along," the captain of the guard said, leading the shameful procession. "That's good."

The guards stood Jess at the foot of the stairs, looking up at the Founder. Aiden snickered at the sight and rubbed his hands together, clearly enjoying every minute of his enemy's suffering.

The Founder glared down at Jess. "So this is Jess."

"Boo!" several people shouted. "Dirty bridge builder!"

Jess stammered, then managed to choke out, "Ma'am, don't trust Aiden. Whatever he's told you is a lie. You can't trust him."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "I told you she'd say something like that, Founder. Jess will say _anything_ to save her own hide."

"I wouldn't!" Jess protested. "I'm telling the truth!"

"Well, at least you were honest enough to step forward and admit your guilt," said the Founder. "I suppose I can appreciate that. This will be an interesting case."

With that, she turned heel and strode into the depths of her palace. Aiden shot Jess an impish smile and followed the Founder.

The captain of the guard saluted the Founder, then turned to Jess and her friends. He pointed towards the palace-and prompt judgement. Jess gulped.

"Off you go, now," said he.

"Okay," Jess mumbled. Her head drooped and she shuffled off to the palace to be judged. She could still feel the Sky City people's stares burning on her back.

This had not gone to plan at all.


	4. Castles in the Sky

The captain of the guard led Jess, Lukas, and Ivor into the palace. He slammed the doors shut in their wake, muffling the jeers and angry yells thrown by the crowds. Jess was a bit relieved for that. She'd never been mocked by a crowd before; it was the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to her. Her face still burned with shame.

"Remember that you are prisoners," the captain instructed. "Keep your hands behind your backs. Keep your heads down. Don't resist the guards. No talking out of turn. Don't disrespect the Founder. And most definitely do not pull out a weapon and threaten her. If you do that, your sentence will be all the harsher."

"What about 'innocent until proven guilty?'" Ivor said. "This is unfair! We're not prisoners. We haven't even been convicted yet. What about our rights?"

Lukas cut him a glare. "Ivor. Shh. You're not helping our case."

With a flourish, the captain opened the double doors to the throne room and ushered the group in. Jess and her friends were led from behind by a group of guards, and two more followed on either side of them. They wore drab brown uniforms with gold accents, and sported silly little hats.

The throne room was clearly designed to make an accused person feel small. The ceiling soared above Jess's head, and the glittering iron walls stretched far in either direction. Any and every sound echoed mightily within the room. The placid blue sky was visible through wide, arching openings in the wall. A yellow and purple runner-rug trailed up to the throne. The throne was a tall golden chair upon a dais, elevating the Founder above the criminals she was about to judge. Presiding from her throne, she sat like a proper lady on a cushion made of grassy dirt. It was an odd sight, but Jess didn't dare comment on it.

Jess and her friends were walked up to the throne (getting a scathing glare from the captain as they did so) but had to stop short, because the Founder was already addressing the Blaze Rods. They stood around her throne like puppies eager for a dog biscuit.

"Your service to Sky City has proved invaluable," the Founder said to the Blaze Rods. "As a token of our favour, we invite you to partake of its bounty."

The Blaze Rods looked across the room. A guard pulled a lever on the floor. Part of the wall receded and a train of chests in minecarts rolled up to the ne'er-do-wells, who immediately started picking through them. Ivor's eyebrows perked when he saw it.

"Do you see that?" he whispered to Jess. "Those minecarts must lead to wherever the Eversource is! Oh! It's so close..."

Lukas was incredulous. "Really? Really, Ivor? You're thinking about that stupid _Eversource_ right now? In case you haven't noticed, we have bigger problems on our hands. Look! Aiden's all chummy with the Founder."

He pointed furiously over at Aiden, who stood at the foot of the Founder's throne. To the Founder he flashed an innocent smile, but as soon as her attention was on something else, he turned back towards Jess. He put his hands on his hips and smirked, showing off his crooked teeth. He didn't even need to say anything. He mocked her with the look in those acid-green eyes.

"Lukas is right, Ivor," Jess said. "We have to figure out how we're getting through this problem before we can worry about getting the Eversource. We've been arrested! We're on trial right now! Getting the Eversource is the least of our worries."

Still addressing the Blaze Rods, the Founder motioned gracefully to the chests full of fresh produce. "We have reaped the splendour of Brother Earth, and now we share it with you. Enjoy."

The Blaze Rods were less than thrilled. Gill pulled a bundle of carrots out of the chest. He looked downcast at the abundance of vegetables (Gill hated vegetables) and lack of more valuable stuff. Maya glowered at the bundle of carrots in one hand and single iron bar in the other.

"Some carrots and an iron bar? That's it? Is this some kind of joke?" she sneeered.

The Founder looked offended. Catching on to her hurt feelings, Aiden jumped in with a bit of brownnosing to distract her.

"We are so honored to have such gifts bestowed upon us," Aiden purred, bowing at the waist. "You have given us such wonderful things in exchange for such a small deed. Our great gratitude, most esteemed Founder."

The Founder grinned, basking in the praise. Jess cringed, trying not to gag. Aiden's behavior was even more disgusting when he was acting this way.

"Let it be known that you Blaze Rods shall always be welcome in Sky City." The Founder folded her delicate hands in her lap. "Be on your way for now. I have criminal scum with which I must contend."

She turned to Jess with a scowl. The Blaze Rods pocketed their treasures. Gill and Maya strode casually out of the room, oblivious to Jess and her friends, but Aiden wanted to really rub it in that he had the upper hand. He sauntered up to Jess with a smirk. Jess thought he was going to say something mean and then walk away, but then he suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her close.

"Things don't look so good for you, Jess." His breath was hot and husky, and it made Jess wince. "My bet's on that you're kinda screwed right now. Too bad I don't get to watch the whole show."

"You don't scare me, creep," Jess hissed back. "Whatever little scheme you're planning, I'm going to stop it. You will regret this."

"Big words, Jess. You won't win this time." He ran his fingers through a shock of her hair. Jess shivered. He held his face so close to Jess's that she was afraid he was going to plant an unwanted kiss on her neck.

"Let go of her," Lukas warned. "Knock it off, Aiden."

"Shut up, you blond bozo," Aiden snapped back. "You're in no place to tell me what to do."

Aiden roughly shoved Jess aside; she almost plowed into Ivor. Jess stood up straight and dusted herself off, glaring at Aiden as he pranced out of the room.

"Get out of my way, Reggie," Aiden growled at the captain as he walked past.

"You will call me Reginald!" the captain shouted after him, but Aiden ignored it.

Reginald marched up to the Founder's throne, lingered at the foot of it, and cleared his throat to make an announcement.

"All parties in the case of _Jess and Company versus Sky City_ , please step forward."

Oh, great. They'd given it an official court case name and everything. The guards pushed Jess, Ivor, and Lukas closer to the throne. The Founder sat up, as tall and straight as possible. She glared down at them.

It might have been Jess's imagination, but the sunlight pouring into the room seemed dimmer. The Founder looked even scarier when backlit by the reddish light of the torches on her throne. Jess felt her heart start to thump against her ribs. Her hands shook. So this is what it felt like to be on trial. She wondered what punishment she and her friends would get if they were convicted. How long would they be in jail? Jess knew already that Sky City had a merciless government, and that would no doubt extend into their criminal justice program.

"Don't we get a lawyer?" Ivor complained. Lukas gave him a dirty look.

"Not. Helping," he hissed at Ivor.

"Names of the defendants?" the Founder inquired of Reginald.

"The girl in the purple armor is Jess, of course," Reginald replied. "The blonde boy is Lukas, and the old man is Ivor."

"Jess and accomplices," the Founder began, "the charges brought against you are acts of wanton and illegal building. It is a violation of our most important law. I hope you have a good explanation for what you have done."

All eyes were on Jess. She chewed on her bottom lip, then shifted from one foot to the other. She had no idea what to say. The Founder narrowed her eyes.

"Psst. Jess," Ivor whispered.

Jess shifted his gaze over to him, hopeful that he might know what to say.

No such luck. "We still have a chance of getting the Eversource."

Jess glared, annoyed that his priorities were still misplaced.

"Are you nuts? She's not gonna help us," Lukas whispered back. "What we need to focus on is not ending up in prison!"

"I await an answer," the Founder said, her tone sharp. "What is your statement of defence?"

Jess panicked and blurted the first thing on her mind. "Ma'am! Please believe me when I say that I'm not a criminal. Aiden and his friends are the people you can't trust."

The Founder just perked a skeptic eyebrow. "What makes you think I believe that?"

Jess wilted. She knew it was a dumb thing to say as soon as it came out of her mouth.

"The 'Aiden' whom you claim to be untrustworthy took care to warn me about you and your accomplices. He told me about your despicable behaviour back home. You're a tyrant to your people; you led a coup to overthrow the Old Order of the Stone and now you make the people grovel at your feet. You raid the sacred burial grounds of ancient peoples and steal their priceless treasures. Then you hoard up those treasures all for yourselves in your selfishness. You set fire to trees and ravage the environment for your own perverse pleasure. You tame savage animals and set them on innocent people to terrorise them. Would that you were standing trial in your world and I was judge, that I could mete out all the punishment your evil deeds deserve!"

Jess gaped. Aiden had slandered her so hard it actually hurt to hear about it. The magnitude of his maliciousness was staggering. He had completely twisted history into his own story-and made Jess the villain of it.

"Furthermore, you came against Aiden for no reason, no fault of his own, and you target him as a scapegoat for any problems in your world. He and his friends were forced to flee to Sky City as refugees from your tyrannical abuses. But yet you followed him...not only to hurt him, but also to steal our most priceless treasure: the Eversource! You are damnable TRAITORS!"

The Founder was so upset by this point that she was shouting. The word "traitors" echoed loudly in the hall. Jess shivered from fear. Treason-that was one of the most serious offenses of them all!

"Ma'am, Aiden is lying." Jess tried to stay as calm as possible, so as to not seem suspicious or reactionary. "He's manipulative and a cheater. He made up all that stuff to make me look back. There was no coup. We raid old temples, not sacred burial grounds. We don't hoard our treasure; we're glad to share it if people ask. I don't know where he's getting the stuff about burning trees and siccing animals on people, because we definitely don't do that. Aiden has been bullying _us_ for years. And now he's trying to steal the Eversource from right under your nose, telling whatever lies needed to get it."

The Founder chuckled darkly, unsold by her defense. "It would seem you're trying the same thing."

Jess sighed and looked down at the floor. The Founder rose to her feet and started walking down the steps of her throne. She folded her hands and looked Jess squarely in the eye.

"Jess, I am well aware that you are the... _leader_ of your group. Come with me. That is an order, not a request."

She walked towards one of the big arched openings in the wall behind her. A guard came up and gave Jess a push, directing her to follow where the Founder had gone. Lukas shot her a sympathetic look. Jess nervously walked where she was guided.

"What about us?" Ivor complained, crossing his arms. "Are we supposed to wait here?"

Jess did a double-take over her shoulder at them. She did not like the way this was unfolding her. The Founder stood outside the palace, looking out at the empty sky. The guard was leading her right up to the Founder. There was not much beyond the palace-just a small ledge of dirt and a couple trees. The Founder could easily push Jess off the edge and let her fall to her doom.

Maybe that's what she was going to do.

Jess felt a rush of heat in her body when she thought of that. Her heart started pounding. Was that how justice was served in Sky City? Did they _execute_ offenders by throwing them off the edge? Jess really did not want to find out. She gingerly stood next to the Founder on the edge, listening to the roar of the wind.

The Founder asked Jess a strange question. "What do you see here?"

Jess didn't know if it was some kind of trick question. "...Nothing, I guess. Just a big, empty sky."

"Exactly," said the Founder. "And now you understand. There is nothing below us. Beneath these clouds is nothing but a great void. Because there is nothing below us, our only resources are what we have here on this island. They are precious, and thus their use must be extremely regulated."

She took out a piece of cobbled stone. Shaking her head as if sad for the piece of rock, she carried it up to the edge, held it out, hesitated for a second, and then let go. The stone piece slipped out of her hand and fell into the nothingness below, disappearing under the clouds.

"If something falls or is dropped off the edge, like that poor piece of cobbled stone, it is gone forever. Irretrievable. And we are deprived of one more unit of precious building material. If the people waste our supplies, we will not survive. That is why I cannot allow them to build freely or have unrestricted access to materials. If not for these laws, we would collapse into anarchy again."

Jess was mentally kicking herself for her oversight. Of course a city in the sky would have limited resources! Now the Founder's laws were starting to make more sense. Sure, it still seemed unfair (didn't the Eversource provide unlimited materials?) but at least there was some kind of crazy reasoning behind the whole ordeal.

"I owe a responsibility to my people to keep them safe, and the only way to do so is to make sure that our laws are obeyed," the Founder concluded.

Jess still had some questions. "But doesn't the Eversource let you make unlimited materials? Wouldn't that solve the resource crisis?"

"I wish that it would," replied the Founder. "Obtaining resources from the Eversource is not as easy as people think that it is. They act as if I want to have such strict laws...they accuse me even after I risk my life daily to obtain those resources they claim I hoard for myself."

"Risk your life?" Jess inquired. "Is the Eversource dangerous?"

"In a sense, very dangerous," the Founder said nebulously. Jess wasn't sure what she meant by that.

"So did all of this shiny gold and iron come from the Eversource? I've never seen more gold and iron in my life!"

"Indeed it did come from the Eversource. Almost everything you have seen on your journey through my city was built by resources from it. I built this kingdom from nothing more than a few clusters of islands in the sky. I have done it all for my people."

Huh. The Founder didn't seem so bad now that they had a talk. Jess wondered if maybe, just maybe, they could get her to forgive them if she offered to help.

"You carry a lot of responsibility on those shoulders," she said. "You don't have to do it all by yourself. We could help you."

The Founder looked off to the side, thinking about it. "It's true. This is a great burden. But…"

"But what?"

"As I said, this is my city and my people. I can't allow outsiders to dictate my actions...Especially _criminal_ outsiders."

She fixed a rather harsh glare on Jess. Jess sighed. The Founder wouldn't budge. The woman walked past Jess, re-entered the throne room, and took a seat upon her throne again. The guard led Jess back into the room and placed her before the throne.

"I was worrying about you for a minute, Jess," Ivor said. "I was certain she was going to kick you off the edge."

 _So did I,_ Jess thought.

The Founder folded her hands in her lap. "Reginald, I am ready to pronounce my verdict."

"Indeed, ma'am," said the captain.

"While my talk with Jess has been enlightening and I'm no longer convinced that they are evil people poised to steal the Eversource, they cannot argue innocence in the matter of the dirt bridge."

Jess cringed. She had forgotten about the bridge.

"It was unauthorized and therefore illegal," she continued. "Not only that, but it is also very ugly and my city guard will have to take time out of their workday to clean it up. Crime is messy, and too often the innocent must clean up after it. I must order that Jess, Lukas, and Ivor be detained and placed in our prisons until this matter is fully investigated. No bail."

Jess and her friends gasped at the sentence. Dang it! They would be thrown in prison no matter what they tried. Worse, if they were stuck in jail, Aiden was free to wander around and get his slimy little hands on the Eversource. Their whole plan was falling apart!

"Reginald, please escort them to the dungeons."

"Hey! This isn't right," Lukas protested as he and the others had their hands wrenched behind their backs and given a push to go. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"Not in the eyes of the law, you haven't," the Founder retorted.

"Why are you doing this?" Jess cried to her. "I wanted to help you. Let me help you!"

"You can help me by serving your time and behaving according to our laws."

Jess's shoulders slumped. Reginald patted her on the back as he led her out of the room.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. But once the Founder makes a decision, there's no changing her mind."

]=0=[

* * *

Reginald took them out of the throne room, with guards surrounding them to make sure no-one tried to make a run for it. Jess and her friends were brought to the dungeon in the basement of the palace. They weren't allowed to have any items inside their cells, especially weapons, so they had to empty out their pockets. Jess reluctantly set her diamond sword on the floor. The items were confiscated and put in a chest.

Then the guards herded Jess, Lukas, and Ivor into a cell together and shut the door. Jess cringed at the sound of the slamming metal door, and then again at the click of a lock. So this is what it felt like to be in jail. It was a rectangular room built out of cobbled stone, stone bricks, and iron blocks. Most of the front wall was made of iron bars instead of stone, so the prisoners had a view of the hallway outside. The beds were shoved into corners of the room, torches provided light, and the ceiling leaked. Jess leaned against the wall and looked wistfully through the windows. She was trying to think, but it was hard because of two annoying noises.

The first was Ivor muttering to himself: _"Oh, nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows except-"_

"Shush!" Lukas snapped. "We've been in jail for five minutes and you're already singing that song?"

Ivor shrugged.

The second annoying noise came from Reginald. The captain hummed to himself as he rummaged through a chest of the confiscated items. Jess's fingers twitched. It annoyed her to see him helping himself to their items.

"This stuff is incredible!" he said to his prisoners. "I've never seen it before."

Jess scowled. But then she got a little idea.

She scooted closer to the door and put on her best sweet smile. "So you like our stuff, huh? Would you want some of it? Maybe we could make a deal. Set us free and I'll let you have free pickings from the stuff!"

No such luck. "Sorry, ma'am, but I'm not allowed to take bribes. I could lose my job if I did. Besides, this is contraband. I already have it."

"It was worth a try," Ivor said to Jess.

Defeated, Jess turned away and rolled her eyes.

"Oh," Reginald mused, lifting an object out of the chest. "What's this?"

He carried it over to the cell. It was a pile of sand. Lukas had been carrying sand with him when they started on their adventure.

"It's mine…" Lukas said, not sure how to respond.

"It's weird," Reginald said. "Kinda like dirt, but also not. Could you grow plants in this?"

"Sand," Jess explained. "That's sand. You've never seen it before? It's everywhere on the beaches where I come from. Heck, there's an entire biome full of the stuff."

"So that's what it is. Interesting." Reginald sifted his fingers through the sand. "Does it do anything special?"

Ivor interrupted before Jess got to say anything. "Oh, for heaven's sake! We don't have to sit in here and explain sand to this caveman! He's the one throwing us behind bars. I refuse."

Reginald scowled, annoyed by the insult. "Well, anyway, it's going in the chest with everything else. The law says I can't let you have anything in your cell that might help you escape."

"How is a piece of sand going to help us escape?" Ivor snarled. "That's ridiculous."

"Well, I like to take precautions." Reginald tossed the sand in a chest and slammed the lid shut. "Sorry."

"That's so pathetic," Ivor drawled. "An insecure and insignificant man on the world's tiniest power trip. I almost feel sorry for him."

Reginald's ears turned red and he whirled back around to face the prisoners. "Hey, you can just be quiet. I'm captain of the guard. I don't have to take guff from mouthy prisoners."

"Who's the chattering one?" Ivor challenged.

"You guys are criminals. Prisoners. You broke the law and now you're getting what you deserve for it. I heard what Aiden said about you. You're terrible people! Burning forests and stealing treasure and hoarding it up for yourselves. How do you sleep at night?"

"Not on these lumpy beds, we won't," Ivor chimed in.

Jess flashed him the most innocent look she could muster. "Do I look like a horrible person, Reginald?"

Reginald paused, studying her baby face, clean dark hair, and bright green eyes. No scars, bruises, or edgy tattoos. She didn't _look_ like a bad person.

"Well...no," Reggie admitted, "but that doesn't mean anything. Looking like a bad person and being a bad person are two different things."

"Come on, Reginald. Have you _seen_ us do anything bad?"

"You built the bridge."

"But that was different. We didn't know it was against the law. I don't like the Founder's law against building, but now I know that she has reasons for it. And all that stuff Aiden said about us...he could be lying, you know. Just because he said something doesn't mean it's true."

"You're making this more complicated than it needs to be," Reggie said. "For now, I have to listen to Aiden and not you. I have to, uh, go back upstairs and help the Blaze Rods tighten security. _Someone_ made it necessary for us to reconfigure the whole deal."

He gave Jess a pointed look and then turned to leave, but she overheard him muttering, "Can't believe I have to take orders from that punky brat…"

He paused when he realized that Jess was following him and eavesdropping on his muttering. He cleared his throat and glared at her.

"I've got my eye on you, missy," he warned. "Don't make any more trouble. It's not that uncomfortable in there."

"Reginald, wait!" Jess called after him as he started up the stairs. "You really can't trust Aiden. He's manipulating the Founder. He wants to steal the Eversource!"

Reggie sighed, tired of hearing her excuses. "I have my orders, Jess. The Blaze Rods are the Founder's guests, with the Founder's favor. I might not like them, but I have to obey my superior. I'm probably being too suspicious, anyway."

"Too suspicious?" Jess challenged. "Being suspicious is your _job_. You're a guard. Think about it. Why do the Blaze Rods grovel at her feet like that?"

"Don't be a fool!" Ivor said. "Can't you see their tricks? They got on the Founder's good side to let her guard down, and when it is, they'll steal the Eversource!"

Reggie put his hand on his forehead. "Uh...Geez, too many perspectives. Maybe there's some truth to what you say. I dunno."

"There is," Jess said gently.

"Whatever. So let's say you make a good point." Reginald caught himself. "But I'm not saying you do! Anyway, _if_ the thing you're claiming is true, why should a captain of the guard let out a trio of prisoners? That goes against my morals as a lawkeeper."

"One mystery for me," Ivor added, "is how you looked at those hooligans and thought, 'My word! Upstanding citizens! I'm sure they will be a splendid benefit to our city.'"

"Listen to your conscience," Jess pleaded to Reginald. "You know this is a better thing to do. Sometimes you have to do what's right, not what's lawful."

Reginald backed away, wringing his hands. Obviously, this was conflicting for him. He glanced to his left, then to his right, and then to his right again.

"Okay," he said after a long pause. "You make a good argument."

He walked over to the dungeon door. Jess's heart gave a leap. She and her friends hurried over to the door.

"Okay. I, the guard, am going to the kitchens to fetch you prisoners some _bread_. I will unlock the door...and 'forget' to close it again. So while I am in the kitchen...the door will be 'accidentally' unlocked." Reggie winked.

"And some certain notorious prisoners will be able to escape?" Jess returned his wink.

With Jess and company eagerly watching, Reginald threw a lever next to the cell door. It creaked open, and freedom was accessible once again.

"If you want to stop the Blaze Rods, now is the time to do it," he said. "Hurry. You'll have to go to the throne room before they get back." He promptly left after that.

Jess, Ivor, and Lukas exited the cell in that order, assuming that the next step of their mission was to go to the throne room as Reggie had said. Ivor flipped right back into being his goofy, excitable self upon exiting the cell.

"Ha-ha! We're getting closer to the Eversource. I can almost smell it. It smells like...like…"

"Like what?" Lukas humored him.

"Like the best cake you've ever tasted. Rich, sweet, and _perfect_!

"Uh-huh. Sure, Ivor," Jess said, not really paying attention to him. Before they went to the throne room, however, their items had to be reclaimed. She opened up the chest and started looking through it. Most of the stuff therein she recognized as being hers. She removed her trusty diamond sword from the chest and sheathed it on her back. While she pulled stuff out of the chest and sorted it between herself, Lukas, and Ivor, she listened to her friends argue about their plans.

"Look, I want to put a dent in the Blaze Rods' scheme," Lukas said to Ivor, "but you can't still want to take the Eversource. Look at all the trouble we got in when the Founder thought we were going to steal it. Jess had to really charm it up to get that lady's trust back. Just stop and imagine all the trouble we'll be in when she finds out that we really were going to steal it after all. Like, seriously, _bad news!_ "

"Pssh. You're a worrywart, that's all," Ivor scoffed. "The key is to not get caught this time. I mean, you didn't even fight when they arrested you."

"I didn't want to get another charge for resisting arrest!" Lukas said. "When you're under arrest, the last thing you want is more charges put on you."

"Charges, schmarges!"

"That's not an argument, Ivor."

"Phooey!"

Once she had everyone's items, Jess decided to chime in with her own opinion on what to do next. "Actually, I think I'd side with Lukas on this one."

"You always agree with him! It's because you think he's cute, isn't it?"

Jess glanced away innocently. "The people here depend on it. Without the Eversource, they won't have the resources they need. How will they survive if we steal it?"

"So you want those dratted Blaze Rods to make off with it?" Ivor sneered.

"No!" Jess sounded hurt. "That wasn't what I meant!"

"This isn't like plundering a temple. This is legitimate stealing," Lukas said to Ivor. "I couldn't take the Eversource and walk away with a clean conscience."

"That's because you're a little blond softie," Ivor said, but before he could berate Lukas any more, Jess tossed a few of his potions to him. He caught them all in his arms without even chipping the glass. Lukas caught his stone sword as Jess tossed it to him, and soon everyone's items had been properly restored to their possession. Including Lukas's sand.

"Oh. Thanks." He put it away quickly. "I, uh, almost forgot about that?"

Jess ran past them. "The throne room is over this way. Come on. We don't have a lot of time."


	5. Falling in Hate

**I'm pretty sure I'm not following the chapter breaks from the actual episode but eh. Now chapter breaks are determined by dramatic moments. So I'm not using the official chapter titles anymore.**

Jess, Lukas, and Ivor flattened against the wall, crouching in the shadows as a guard walked past in the hallway. Jess held her breath, trying to be as quiet as possible. The guard continued down the hallway without noticing them, turned to his left, and walked into another room. Jess let out a small sigh of relief and motioned for the others to follow her. Very quietly they pushed open the double doors and slipped into the throne room. It shone with a purple glow in the moonlight.

"Ugh, back to _this_ room," Lukas grumbled.

"Hush-shh!" Ivor scolded. "Whisper. Someone might hear us if we talk too loudly."

Lukas and Jess fanned out to give the room a once-over. Jess found a long dining table at one end of the room and Lukas discovered a bookcase at the other, but that was it. There were no other people in the room.

"We don't have to be paranoid," she said. "There's nobody el-"

She broke off, because she saw a person sneaking up behind Lukas. Jess froze up, not recognizing the person right away.

"Lukas! Behind you!" she warned, but it was too late. The mystery person punched Lukas in the back. Blondie went down on his knees, grunting in pain. What a wimp.

"Hey!" Jess yelled at the person who punched him. She almost charged in to attack him when Petra came out of nowhere to intervene.

"Whoa! Jess! Stop!" Petra said, interposing herself between the person and Jess. To the stranger she said, "It's okay, Milo. It's just Lukas and Jess."

Jess halted and looked the stranger over more closely. It was dark in the throne room, but now that she could slow down and look more carefully, she recognized the curly blond hair, beret hat, and goofy blue suspenders. It was Milo, all right.

"Late on the warning," Lukas mumbled, stumbling to his feet. He rubbed his back. "Did Milo really have to punch me?"

"I sincerely apologize for that," Milo said. "I admit that was a bit gratuitous."

"It was _painful!_ You punch harder than I thought you would."

"It took one punch to take you out?" Ivor looked disdainfully at the blond boy. "Who's this character?"

"It's Milo, remember?" Jess said to him, and to Milo she asked, "Where have you and Petra been?"

With a relieved smile, Petra explained, "We snuck into the castle so we could break you guys out of the pokey. But it looks like you already took care of that."

"As long as we don't get caught again." Ivor crossed his arms.

"And behold, we meet again, Jess," Milo mused. "The universe has interwoven our destinies once again."

Jess gave him a strange look. "Uh huh. Sure. Right, Milo."

"Are you sure you trust him, Petra?" Jess glanced dubiously at her friend.

"Of course I do. He helped me escape." Petra put her hands on her hips.

Milo faced the group and started up a little speech: "You needn't be distrustful of me, brave ones. Like yourselves, I consider myself a revolutionary. There exists, in the underbelly of Sky City, a secret order of builders and freedom fighters dedicated to resisting the Founder's dictatorial rule. I'm their leader, what's more! _Vive la révolution! Pour le liberté!_ "

"Huh?" Jess was confused by Milo's hammy speech and sudden spouting of French catchphrases.

"It's a rebellion," Petra explained.

Unimpressed, Ivor rolled his eyes and turned aside.

"Allow me to explain further," Milo continued, this time with emphatic hand gestures. "Our goal is to free the Eversource from the Founder's clutches so that the people may have free use of it. This is why we cannot allow Cayden and-"

"Aiden," Lukas corrected.

"Sorry. This is why we cannot allow Aiden and his cronies to steal it and dethrone the Founder. If they do, I fear we will just have a new dictator in place of the old."

"We need to put that little twit back in his place." Lukas stepped forward, nodding.

"Which is why we ought to join forces. It seems quite advantageous."

"It's about time we had some allies," Lukas agreed.

"Congrats, Milo. You're a part of the team." Jess saluted.

"Splendid! Allow me to prove myself to you right now. I believe there is a secret entrance somewhere in this room."

Jess trailed away to investigate for secret entrances. She found some minecart tracks that twisted around a corner and dead-ended into a wall. Very suspect.

"It doesn't look too secret to me," she commented, as Lukas bent down to study it. "I remember there being a door here. And minecarts went through it. If I can just find or make something that will open the door again...I wonder if there's anything in here we can use?"

"Use a lever, sweetheart," Ivor suggested from across the room. "It's easy to make one of those bad boys and it'll open the door in a snap."

"Hey, that's...actually a really good idea," Jess agreed. "But where would I find one?"

With Lukas continuing to study the door (must have been his sense of architecture kicking in), Jess took to wandering around the throne room in search of a lever, or at least the materials to make one. She went from one end of the room to the other, walking over to the bookcase. Even though she probably wasn't going to find what she needed there, she was curious. One book in particular grabbed her interest.

"Habits of the Endermen…" she mused, "by Soren? Wait, is that _the_ Soren? He never said anything about a city in the sky. I wonder what happened to him."

Shrugging, she turned away from the bookcase and went to investigate another part of the throne room. Speaking of thrones, the big golden one gracing the room seemed to be practically beckoning to her. It was a bit childish, but she couldn't resist the urge. She hopped up and sat down on the grass cushion, enjoying the regal position. She straightened up her back and tilted her chin up, just like the Founder.

"Look, Ivor!" she chirped. "I'm the Founder!"

Ivor gave her a scolding look. "Jess…"

Imitating the Founder's accent, Jess babbled, " _Stop building! Stop crafting! Everything has to be done my way or else I'm gonna have a fit! Uh! Obey me!"_

"Jess." His tone was firm. "Don't do that."

"But that's what she says."

"No, it's not. Come on, what if someone catches you doing that? Besides, we have important stuff we have to do."

"Oh, fine." Jess slumped in the chair, then slid off the went back to looking for a lever. Since she'd searched the internal part of the throne room, she decided to go out on the balcony next. She walked under one of the wall arches, getting a rush of cool night air. Outside, she found a strange device: a small pool of lava and a longer channel of water, with a chunk of cobbled stone separating them. Jess didn't know what it was or what it did. Ivor did, however, running outside to see it and babbling about how wonderful it was.

"Oh, how clever! She knows how to make a cobbled stone generator!" he gushed.

"A what?" Jess scratched the back of her neck.

"Lava and water placed just far enough that they can produce an infinite amount of stone. If you harvested that piece of stone right there, they would flow together again and create a new chunk! Incredible, is it not?"

"Really?" To test it, Jess bent down and beat the stone chunk with her fist. Luckily, her hand was protected by her gauntlets, so she didn't end up with bruised knuckles. The stone chipped, allowing her to remove it and put it away for later. Almost immediately, the lava and water flowed together. There was a hiss of heat, and then a fresh block of stone formed.

"Like I said: very clever," Ivor chimed in as Jess carried the cobbled stone away from the generator.

"I have half the ingredients I need for a lever," Jess said, holding the stone in her hand. "And there's a crafting table right over there. Now I just need to find a stick."

Next to the crafting table, there were a few flower pots with plants in them. Most of them had various flowers, but Jess did find one with a withered, dead shrub inside.

"Oh, poor dead shrub. Nothing more than a bundle of sticks now...hey, wait a second!" Jess's own comment gave her an idea. She ripped the shrub out of the flowerpot, not feeling very bad because it was already dead, and stripped off the small branches. It left her with a nice, mostly straight stick, ready for crafting.

"Good." She carried the stick and stone over to the crafting table. "Sticks and stones might break people's bones, but at least they help me make a lever."

She slotted the stick into the stone. Somehow, in that universe, that made a fully functional lever. Pleased with her crafting, she turned back to re-enter the throne room and-

"Augh!" she yelped when she suddenly ran into Milo. "What the…?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," he stammered. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just so fascinating when you craft. You're so...confident in your abilities."

"Thanks, Milo."

"You're an inspiration, Jess!" he called after her as she went to fix the door. "You give us hope!"

"Thanks, Milo." Jess plunked the lever down in the right place and switched it on. The floor shuddered as some hidden mechanism activated. The iron door pulled back, revealing some minecarts on a track that went down into the unknown. Exactly five minecarts rolled out into the room.

"Ah!" Ivor squealed. "Eversource, my dear, you will soon be mine!" He blew a kiss to the Eversource. Jess just sighed and rolled her eyes. Back to his old self.

"Okedokee," she said, climbing in a minecart, "who's up for a minecart ride?"

Four clanking noises behind her told her that the others thought it was a great idea, too. The carts rolled forward and then pitched down the incline. Jess's hair blew back in the wind, and Milo held on to his beret lest it be blown off his head. Lukas whimpered and gripped the edges of the cart until his knuckles turned white. Petra enjoyed the ride; she laughed and whooped for joy. Jess felt like she was dying inside, remembering that she actually hated minecart rides.

Several inclines and twists later, the minecarts slammed to a stop in the basement of the Founder's palace. Jess climbed out of the minecart, patted the ground underfoot to make sure it was solid, and staggered a few steps forward. The other four emerged from their carts shortly thereafter. Ivor and Milo seemed dazed; Lukas looked like he was going to vomit, and Petra yammered something about wanting to do it again.

The first thing Jess noticed was that the basement was packed to the brim with large wooden trunks. They were stacked on top of each other all the way up to the ceiling.

"Wowie zowie!" she exclaimed. "Look at all those chests."

"They're labeled." Petra pointed at the signs labeling the chests. "What do they all say? Slime, zombie, creeper, ocelot...boy, there are a lot of different labels."

"I've never heard of those things," said Milo, scratching his little beard. "What is an ocelot?"

"What could it mean?" Ivor was just as puzzled. As far as he knew, ocelots were cute jungle cats, not something you could store inside a wooden trunk in the basement.

"Maybe they're full of animal feed?" Lukas suggested. "Like hay and sugar in the chest marked 'horse?'"

"But why would she have food for hostile animals?" Petra thumped her fist against a chest labeled 'creeper.' "What would creepers eat, anyway?"

"What if she has a secret zoo somewhere?" Lukas was still standing by his theory. "And this is her storage for all the supplies."

"There's one way to find out." Jess found a trunk on the floor labeled 'sheep' and bent down to open it. She was expecting to find either hay or wool inside, but instead, the box was full of large white eggs with pink spots. She picked up one and examined it.

Lukas stated the obvious. "That's an egg. What's an egg doing in a box labeled 'sheep?'"

"Throw it against something," Petra said. "See what happens."

"M'okay." Jess stood up and chucked the egg at a stone wall. It smashed against the wall, but instead of making a mess of albumen and yolk, a sheep inexplicably popped out. It landed on the floor and proceeded to eat the grass on the floor like any normal sheep.

"Oh. That's new." Jess stared at the sheep. "I guess it really does make sheep. Was that in there the entire time?"

"Is a sheep a monster?" Milo had never seen a live animal before. "It's not that scary. It's fluffy."

"Eggs with animals in them?" Petra brushed her hair out of her face. "Now I've seen everything."

"I think they're color-coded, too." Lukas walked up to them, holding a yellow egg with brown spots and an orange egg with yellow spots. "I think this one makes ocelots and this one makes Blazes."

"Gee. The Founder can just spawn any animal at any time?" Petra picked up another sheep egg.

"The Eversource must be what makes those eggs." Jess looked up at the vast collection of chests, wondering how many thousands of eggs were stored in that very basement. "They're not natural."

She shouldn't have mentioned the Eversource, because Ivor got all giddy over it again. "We must stay alert! Eyes peeled but not literally! It could be right around the corner at this point." He scurried down a corridor.

"All right. Let's see if we can find any more clues," Jess said. Then she went to follow Ivor and make sure he wasn't getting into trouble. She had to walk through a corridor flanked by walls of wooden trunks. They were labeled for farm animals: cows, horses, chickens, and...pigs.

Pigs.

"Oo-oh!" Jess moaned, thinking of someone special; she bit her lip. "Oh, should I?"

Dozens of eggs ready to hatch a perfect piglet, sitting unguarded for Jess to use. She could have a pet pig again. But...no. She shouldn't really do it. It wasn't right to try to replace Reuben. With great difficulty, she tore herself away from the chest of pig eggs and went to go see what Ivor was up to.

When she rounded the corner, she could've sworn she saw something move behind a stack of dirt. What was it? It was small, maybe some kind of animal. But small animals weren't always friendly animals, so Jess approached with caution.

A plump hen suddenly bumbled out from behind the dirt pile, her little wings flapping wildly. She tripped over her own feet, faceplanted, then straightened up and turned to face Jess. She wore a tiny crown and a little medal around her neck. She tilted her head and held out her wings to Jess as if to ask, "Don't I look pretty?"

Jess wasn't sure what to make of the regally-dressed, clumsy hen, but Milo thought it was stunning.

"Amazing!" he gushed. "What a majestic creature!"

Jess struggled not to laugh at that silly statement. Ivor, Petra, and Lukas approached, also not sure what to make of the chicken.

"It's...it's a chicken," Jess stammered. "Is this the Eversource?"

Petra let out a flat "What."

"Wait. Maybe it's not so ridiculous as we think it is," Ivor offered. "The spawn eggs. That's it, the spawn eggs!"

"Unbelievable." Lukas couldn't stop staring at the Eversource.

"Let me see if I can put the pieces together here." Jess knelt down and patted the Eversource on the head. "The chicken lays the eggs. The eggs make monsters. The Founder slays the monsters. And the drops from the monsters make this place."

"Wow," Lukas's appreciation for the architecture was renewed. "It's only really rarely that zombies and zombie pigmen drop iron and gold bars. And this place is chock full of iron and gold! Can you _imagine_ how long it took the Founder to build this place?"

"Kinda forces you to respect the lady a little more, even if you don't like her regime. She's dedicated." Jess thought about the sweeping vista of Sky City and how long it must have taken to build the place.

"Bah, who cares?" Ivor butted in. "Just grab the bird and let's get going."

"The chicken that makes supplies for an entire civilization?" Lukas cut him a cold glare. "I don't think that's a good idea, Ivor."

Now Milo was angry, too. "Oh, and I suppose we ought to just waltz away and let the Founder merrily keep crushing us under her thumb? Let's give it to the people! Democracy!"

Ivor stomped on the ground. "But that confounded chicken is what we came for!"

Jess bit her lip, confronted with a difficult decision. Take the chicken, let the Founder keep it, or give it to the public? Was this even her decision to make? Why did everything seem so morally gray on this adventure? She made a knee-jerk decision.

"Let's, uh, let the people have it," she said, picking up the Eversource in her arms. "Milo's idea is a good idea. The people can decide how they want to use the resources."

She didn't get the reaction she wanted from her friends. Ivor blubbered about how that rendered the entire journey pointless, while Lukas was miffed that Jess was farming out the Founder's possession to a people who didn't know how to use resources responsibly.

But as it turned out, that ended up not mattering much. Someone grabbed Petra from behind and _threw_ her clean across the room. While everyone was too stunned to react, the ninja did the same thing to Ivor and then to Milo! Jess almost dropped the Eversource in shock. Maya and Gill came charging into the room, swords drawn. They ganged up on Milo, Ivor, and Petra and kept them down at swordpoint. The Founder leapt in front of Jess, tensed up in a kung fu pose. She glared at Jess.

"I should have trusted my instincts," she growled. "You were here to steal my Eversource after all."

Jess blanched, realizing how bad this looked right now. She and her friends had tricked the captain of the guard, busted out of jail, and now they were in the basement and prepared to make off with the Eversource. Whoops.

Aiden sidled up to the Founder. "I told you they were horrible people. See, Jess always lies! She's going to steal the Eversource, the needs of your people be hanged!"

"It's not what it looks like!" Jess protested. "I'm only holding it. It was going to walk off the edge, and I didn't want it to fall off, and…"

"Silence! You and your friends are going to be in jail until you rot for this!" The Founder's eyes flashed with rage.

"She's a vicious liar, ma'am. You shouldn't listen to anything she says." Aiden clasped his hands and gave the Founder a pitiful look. "We should put her and her friends away before they hurt anyone else."

"Shut up, Aiden!" Jess snapped. "I'm tired of your crap. You've been lying to the Founder this whole time. You just want the Eversource for yourself. You're the bad guy!"

Aiden looked surprised, then angry. He cracked his knuckles.

"Oh-oh-oh-oh!" the Founder scoffed. "I'm suppose to believe those words out of the mouth of an _escaped convict?_ "

Jess fell silent, convicted by that. Okay, she couldn't deny that she broke out of jail. But still...she had to! She had to stop Aiden!

"Aiden gave me plenty of warnings about you, Jess. You and your friends really are thieves, and now you're poised to make off with the source of life for my city. My people will die if you steal the Eversource, and their blood will be on your hands. Don't make me put your blood on mine to prevent it."

Jess drew back, startled by the Founder's rather dark threat. She was about to respond when Aiden chimed in. He was standing by a chest full of creeper eggs.

"Don't bother, Founder. I'll take care of her...and you, while I'm at it. I've done a good job of acting so far, and I think I'll take the chicken as payment." He tossed a creeper egg up and down in his hand.

The Founder gasped; now she'd been betrayed on two sides. "Don't you dare."

"Who wants eggs?" he mocked. He threw the egg at Jess. She dodged out of the way. The egg broke against the wall, spawning a brand-new creeper. Immediately, the green furry monster flashed white with an impending explosion. The Founder armed dual stone swords in preparation to kill it, but it exploded before she could act. The force of the explosion blew a hole in the wall and left the Founder dangling for dear life over the edge.

"No!" Jess cried.

Aiden ran in to fight Jess, but Lukas intercepted and shoved him back. The two boys started scuffling, lashing out with punches and slaps. It looked like Lukas was having a hard time holding back an angry Aiden.

"It's okay, Jess!" Lukas called to her. "I've got this clod. Save the Founder before she falls!"

As much as Jess wanted to help her friend, she had to rescue the Founder. She disliked the woman, but she wasn't about to let her die. Jess dove in and grabbed the Founder's hands before she fell into the Void. Jess struggled and helped the Founder climb back onto land.

"Thank you, thank you," the Founder stammered, surprised that the criminal who hated her had just saved her life. "I owe you-"

"AAAH!" Lukas screamed. He stumbled backwards, having been beat away by Aiden. He slipped and fell off the edge.

Lukas. Fell. Off. The. Edge.

Into the void.

Into oblivion.

Jess couldn't even scream. All that could come out was a gagging sound. Her heart dropped into her stomach and her body felt cold all over. While she was still bolted to the ground, Aiden gave her a Sparta kick from behind, knocking her and the Founder into the Void as well.

The last thing Jess saw before falling was him flashing her an evil smile.

"Long live the queen."


	6. From the Ground Up

Jess screamed.

The Founder screamed.

They both screamed. They screamed. And screamed. And screamed. They let loose with long, sustained shrieks until their throats burned. Vertigo swam through Jess's mind from the free-fall. Her whole body felt cold with fear as she and the Founder plunged towards certain death. The wind thrust back her hair, stung her eyes, and roared in her ears. Clouds swirled around them, melting upon contact.

All those quintessential questions about death flooded through her mind as Jess was certain that she was soon to land in the middle of it. She wondered if there was some fatal pit at the bottom of the abyss, or if she and the Founder were just going to keep falling until kingdom come. Would her life flash before her eyes? What should her last words be?

"I hate you!" the Founder snapped suddenly, her voice hoarse from all the screaming. "We're going to die, and it's your fault! I never wanted to find out what happens to something thrown off the edge of the island, but now I get to know, thanks to you!"

" _My_ fault?!" Jess sputtered. " _My_ fault? You shouldn't have trusted the Blaze Rods. Look at what Aiden did!"

"Oh, and as if you were more trustworthy!" the Founder retorted. "If you hadn't stood there gaping when that blond gremlin was thrown off the edge, you could have seen Aiden coming before he threw us into the Void."

The nasty reminder came back to Jess in a flash, and she frantically scanned the open air below. "Lukas! Where's Lukas? Do you see him anywhere down there?"

"Pish posh!" scoffed the Founder. "What does it matter? He's going to die, just like us. You can reunite with your stupid friend in heaven, all right? We have a bigger problem right now."

"He's not stupid!" Jess protested.

The indigo sky around them had bloomed into a bright blue color. A new day was dawning. A fiery sun painted the clouds rosy with the dawn. It was a beautiful sight, but it didn't subtract from the fear of the situation. They were still falling into the Void.

"Isn't it a lovely morning to die?" the Founder snarled at Jess. "I wonder how painful this will be. Should I want it to be painless because of me, or _agonising_ because of you?"

Jess was tired of listening to the Founder berate her, so she casually glanced down to see if there were any more cloud banks below to fall through. A thin stratum of clouds stretched out under her, and through the mist, she could see…

"Land ho!" she shouted, pointing frantically at it.

The Founder was equally stunned. "H-How is that possible? There's nothing below Sky City!"

The land below was a pleasant plain with grassy hills and healthy trees. A nice-sized lake sat in the center of it.

"We still won't survive the fall, though!" There was a bit of panic in the Founder's voice.

Jess waved her arms, trying to steer herself in midair. "We will if we aim for the water. Hurry!"

Sticking their arms and legs out, Jess and the Founder "swam" through the air as they shot for the lake. In this world, any fall could be survived as long as one landed in sufficiently deep water. Jess tipped into a swan dive, bracing for the impact. She checked over her shoulder to make sure that the Founder was doing okay. Jess worried that the long, loose skirt on the woman's gown was going to impede how well she could dive through the air. Still, while it made the Founder fall ever-so-slightly more slowly than Jess, she was right on track with following Jess's lead.

Being prepared for the impact, Jess made a ten-point swan dive into the lake. Just copying whatever Jess did, the Founder bobbled the landing and belly flopped in the most un-queenly manner imaginable. They both hit the lake with heavy splashes, throwing water everywhere. They scrambled to break the surface again, squeezed the excess water out of their hair, and then treaded water.

Elated that they had survived, Jess splashed at an imaginary Grim Reaper. "Ha! Ol' Jess lives to fight another day!"

"Baa," said a random sheep also floating in the lake. It was the sheep from the Eversource egg room. It must have been blasted over the edge when the creeper exploded.

"That was unbelievable," stammered the Founder. Her green eyes were wide with shock. "Brr. Let's get out of this lake."

They paddled through the water, over to the gravel-covered shore of the lake. It was next to a nice spot shaded by some trees. The shade allowed a person to sneak up on the ladies without them noticing.

"Jess! Are you okay?" Lukas ran up to them, clutching his left arm.

"I'm okay now!" She scrambled onshore, ran over to him, and captured him in a big hug. "I was so scared. But you made it!"

"And thankfully in one piece." He moaned and clutched his arm. "Almost one piece. Ouch. Aiden was stronger than I thought he'd be."

"When he threw you over the edge…" Jess couldn't even finish the sentence. "I felt like I was dying inside!"

"Yep, I didn't like it much, either." Lukas sighed. "Thanks for trying to save the Founder. I know you and her aren't friends, but…"

"I wasn't going to let her die." Jess put her hand on her hip. "I'm glad you're okay, though. I hope that's not dislocated."

She looked at Lukas's left arm. It was hard to see what the damage was under his armor, but judging by the way he clutched it and groaned, it hurt something fierce.

"We'll deal with my arm later," he dismissed. "While we're on the subject, um, is the Founder okay? She's staring at trees."

It was true. The Founder stood a few meters away, looking up in wonder at the trees. The wind played with her hair and the skirt of her gown, but she didn't flinch. Jess couldn't tell if the woman had gone into shock or if she just found trees really enchanting for some reason. In fact, Jess was a little concerned. She walked over to talk to the Founder.

"Excuse me, your majesty?" Jess cleared her throat. "Miss Founder? Is everything okay?"

The Founder ran her hand down the trunk of a tree, feeling the rough bark under her fingers. "It's...it's hard to describe. These trees, this lake, all these things...they've been down here all this time?"

"Moo," said a cow as it waddled up to the Founder. Hesitantly she reached out and patted it on the head. It lowed pleasurably and waggled its ears.

"I outlawed any searches for land below us," she said quietly to Jess and Lukas. "We thought there was nothing below but the Void."

"But now that you see that there is land below," said Jess, "what are you going to do? Surely you're not going to force everyone to stay up on that island, right?"

"I-I honestly don't know." The Founder wrung her hands. "I just don't."

Jess curled and uncurled her hands. She really hoped the Founder wasn't going to make everyone stay on Sky City even though there was land beneath. If she moved everyone to ground level, they could spread out and not have such limited resources. It would make life drastically better for the people. But the Founder wasn't one to listen to other people's opinions, so Jess stayed quiet for the moment. The last thing she wanted was to make the Founder angry with her yet again.

Lukas let out a soft whistle as he scanned the landscape. "Look at all those untouched biomes. It's beautiful."

And it was true. Beyond the tree-dotted lakeside, a small sand desert reached over the land to a river, and on the other side of the river were some snow-capped mountains. It was the kind of vista that begged for a painting or drawing.

The Founder sighed. "I need to take this in slowly. I feel a tad overwhelmed. I don't even know what to do."

Lukas chuckled. "You can start by unwinding. Nice, slow, deep breaths. It'll be okay."

The woman took her time breathing in, then exhaled even more slowly. The redness on her face faded away, and she finally allowed herself to smile. She took off her circlet, smoothed her hair, and then put the crown back on.

"You okay?" Lukas asked when she'd done all that.

"I think so." She nodded. "Thanks."

Now that the Founder had calmed down and was probably less likely to explode on Jess again, Jess decided to float the suggestion to her. "You know what this means, right? You could bring the people from Sky City down here! They could spread out and build wherever they pleased, and no-one would have to worry about not having enough resources."

The Founder's brow furrowed, and for a second, Jess was sure that she had just ticked the woman off yet again. But to her relief, the Founder started to nod and smile. She paced on the grass, talking more to herself than Jess.

"This-This could actually be very beneficial," the woman muttered to herself. "This means that I can stop having to draft databases for resource distribution. A...And no more approving petitions...no more red tape...or public debates...or meddlesome politics! Ah-ha-ha-ha! I'm free!"

Jess and Lukas both took a step backwards, a bit unnerved by the Founder's sudden giddiness. Jess wondered if she was suffering from some kind of reverse altitude sickness.

She cleared her throat. "Miss Founder?"

"Ah-wha?" The Founder stopped hopping around. "What is it?"

Jess pointed up. "We should go back up and tell everyone about the land. They need to know."

"You're right." The woman paced. "You're right. They have to know. Now if we can just figure out how to go back-"

"Look out!" Jess shouted suddenly, and pushed the Founder out of the way. The Founder was about to protest when a zombie abruptly dropped out of the sky, slammed into the ground, and burst apart into dust. Not two meters away, a skeleton suffered the same fate. With horror, Jess, the Founder, and Lukas looked up at the sky raining monsters. The flaming zombies and skeletons rained down around them, and Jess got a sinking feeling in her stomach when she realized why it was happening.

"This is surreal!" the Founder stammered. "How the-What's going on?"

"This isn't ideal," Lukas said in a massive understatement.

"Aiden," Jess hissed, teeth gritted. "That _idiot_. He's using the Eversource eggs to spawn monsters."

"Why would he do something like that?" Lukas couldn't wrap his mind around the idea. "I know Aiden is stupid, but how could he be dumb enough to intentionally spawn hostile animals?"

Surprisingly, the Founder had a theory. "Control. The people know he threw me off the edge. He can't win their favour, so instead he is resorting to ruling them with fear. That is why he unleashed the monsters on my people."

"Argh!" Lukas growled. "I swear, that punk is dumber than a chunk of rock!"

"I cannot leave my people to suffer his abuses," the Founder said, looking frantically up at the sky. "We have to stop him."

"No disagreement on that one." Jess bit her lip.

"Jess. Uh, blond boy. Please help me find a way to get back up to Sky City. This is urgent."

Jess didn't hesitate at all. "Of course I'll help. It's the right thing to do, Miss Founder."

"Thank you so much," she stammered. "And one more thing."

"What is it?"

"My name is Isa." She sounded almost timid as she gave her real name...like it was a relinquishment of some of her power.

Jess thought Isa was a nice name, it was a relief to not have to call her "Miss Founder" all the time, but there wasn't a moment to lose. Jess needed a quick, creative plan to get back up to Sky City. She scanned their surroundings. There were trees, but of course none of them were tall enough to reach anywhere nearly high enough. The lake water couldn't help them at all. The only other thing in the vicinity was a lot of dirt.

But maybe a lot of dirt was just what they needed.

"That's what we need," Jess said, more to herself than anyone else.

"What do you mean?" Isa didn't have any idea what Jess's train of thought was.

Lukas did, though, and he chimed in, "Hey, I see where you're going. Good thinking, Jess."

"But what is it?" Isa was annoyed that she wasn't privy to this idea. "What are you children talking about?"

"We're gonna build a tower of dirt back up to Sky City," Jess explained.

"But we'll need tonnes of dirt for that!" Isa protested.

"So we're going to dig up lots of dirt," Jess said. "Come on."

They ran away towards a more open spot. It also got them away from the brunt of the falling monsters. Lukas tried to help, but the digging required two hands to be truly efficient, and his arm hurt too much for that. Jess made him sit in the shade and recover instead. Then Jess and the Founder worked together to harvest as much dirt as possible. Isa ripped up soil until her fingernails were worn down to the quick. She and Jess gouged a channel into the earth in their wake.

"Okay," said Jess, taking off her gauntlet and rubbing her red, raw fingers. "That should be enough. I hope."

"Jess!" Isa snapped her fingers. "Look at that!"

Jess glanced over to where Isa was pointing. Their digging had revealed the egg-shaped quartz portal that had led her friends to this dimension in the first place.

"It's one of the portals," Jess said. "What's it doing hiding underground?"

"Exquisite," said Isa. "This is the portal for this world. I thought I destroyed the last one! My word. The ground world is full of surprises."

Jess halted. "You destroyed the portal for this world? Why would you do that?"

"The safety of my people. I couldn't risk letting them leave this world, to go out into even more dangerous worlds. I'm like a shepherdess, Jess. I have to keep my people safe at all costs."

"Never mind." Jess didn't feel like arguing with Isa on this one, nor did she need to be on Isa's bad side again. "I'm going to take a mental note of it, anyway. Let's get out of this pit and start building the tower."

So they did. The three of them crawled out of the crater and found a flat piece of land next to it. Just before Jess laid down the first chunk of dirt, Lukas piped up.

"Jess, I'm really sorry, but I can't build up with you guys." He was clutching his arm again. "Ugh. My stupid arm's hurting again. I think I have to sit out for now. Is that okay?"

Jess was upset that Lukas had to stay behind, but she understood why. "Yeah. I guess you'll have to. I don't want you to hurt your arm any more than it already is by straining it."

"Thanks for understanding. I'm sorry."

"Wait." An unpleasant thought suddenly came to Jess. "But won't it be dangerous to stay down here? It looks like a thunderstorm is rolling in. It gets dark enough for the monsters to come out during a storm, and you'll get rained on, and lightning is a hazard…"

Lukas chuckled. "Jess, I've been through plenty of storms and nights out in the open. I know how to make a shelter and rustle up some food. It's gonna be okay, gotcha?"

"Gotcha," Jess mumbled halfheartedly. She took him by the right hand and led him over to a tree, then sat him down against it.

"Have a seat...There you go." She patted him on the shoulder. "Stay safe, buddy."

"I appreciate your help," Isa said to him. "I have misjudged you and your friends. Jess and her company...you are an honourable lot. It has been a pleasure to know you."

"Why are you making this sound like the final goodbye?" Lukas chuckled. "I'm just hurting a little, not dying. See you when you get back. Jess, can you do me a favor?"

"Of course. Whatcha need?"

"Kick Aiden's little rear end for me, all right?"

Jess laughed. "I'd only be glad."

Isa and Jess walked a few steps away to start building the tower. They laid dirt down with haste, packing it into a tower. There was no time to waste making it attractive. This just had to be quick and to the point, as there was a city to save. Jess or Isa would hop up, pack down some dirt under them, and land back on the tower to start the cycle again. Again and again and again they repeated the cycle, stacking the dirt higher and higher into the air. Jess's arms started to get tired, but she kept going. She stayed focused even when dark clouds rolled in and it started to rain.

Jess used her anger to fuel her energy. She was furious with Aiden and his stupid little gang of bullies. She mentally listed off reasons why they were terrible. She hated how Aiden pushed around everyone. How he had lied about her to the Founder. How his slander landed Jess, Lukas, and Ivor in jail. How the stupid little punk threw Lukas off the edge and made Jess think that he was a goner. Then, as if it couldn't get any worse, he threw Jess and Isa off, too. And now he was terrorizing the innocent Sky City people with monster eggs. Jess was determined to put an end to his scheme as soon as she could.

And she hoped it would be very, very soon.


	7. Fallen, Fallen is Sky City the Great

**The next Silly Mode short is shaping up to be...long, so I'm releasing this Order Up chapter instead.**

Jess continued stacking dirt as the rainstorm turned into a thunderstorm. The sky deepened to navy blue, and spears of lightning shot through the clouds. Panting from exhaustion, she and the Isa fought on to reach the city. The dirt bridge from earlier was still there, albeit slick from being rained on. Isa and Jess leapt off their towers and onto the dirt bridge. But Jess had no time to reflect on how tired she was from the climb.

Sky City was in chaos. A flock of Ghasts floated around the city. The creatures spat fireballs out of their mouths, which exploded in bursts of flame and rocked the city. Isa gasped in horror at the sight.

"My city! My people!" she cried.

"Come on!" Jess grabbed the Isa by the hand and started running for the blasted-apart gates. "We gotta get inside to stop Aiden!"

Isa panicked. "But what about the-"

"Don't worry about the Ghasts," Jess gasped. "We just have to keep running."

One of the Ghasts noticed them approaching. The huge, jellyfish-shaped creature opened up its ruby-red eyes, screamed, and shot a fireball at them. Jess resisted the urge to stop and dodge it, and pulled at Isa's arm to make sure she didn't stop either.

"Keep running! Don't stop!" Jess shouted over her shoulder to Isa. They both somersaulted to avoid the fireball, and it slammed into the ground behind them. Jess felt the wave of heat and shock from the impact and stumbled, but didn't dare slow down. They made it across the bridge and past the gates.

Through ragged breathing, Jess said, "We made it! Are you okay?"

Horrified by the sight of her city, Isa fell on her knees. "No! What have those villains done?"

The sight stretched out before Isa and Jess bore no semblance to the calm, pretty city Jess had walked into yesterday. Giant craters had been blown in the streets and buildings, the community garden was on fire, and swarms of monsters chased the Sky Citizens around the city. A creeper explosion destroyed the crafting table building and sent a citizen flying. A cluster of spiders pounced on a woman, tackling her to the ground. A horde of zombies advanced on a city guard.

"Back! Get back, you hideous things!" The guard was unarmed; he had lost his sword. The zombies punched him, knocking him into a water ditch.

"We have to help him!" Isa said to Jess.

Jess didn't need to be told twice. She drew her sword and ran at the cluster of zombies. She slashed one across the chest, killing it immediately. Before she got to any of the others, though, Isa vaulted over a fence and attacked the rest of them with dual iron swords.

"Haaaaugh!" she war-cried. "Hi-yah!" Her expert hacking and slashing left the rest of the zombies dead in a second. Still holding the swords, she ran up to the guard.

"Soldier! What's the meaning of all this?" she asked him.

"Monsters are attacking the city, ma'am!" The guard saluted her. "They seem to be coming from within the palace!"

He pointed over at the palace. Part of the dome had been destroyed in an explosion, leaving a gaping hole in the roof. A Ghast flew out of it and started shooting fireballs at the people below. And on the top of the palace steps stood two little punks contributing to the chaos. Maya and Gill pulled spawn eggs out of a chest and threw them at the terrified civilians below, spawning hordes of spiders, zombies, skeletons, and creepers.

"The Blaze Rods!" Jess growled. "Those punks. Come on, Isa. We need to stop them."

"I can't come with you," Isa said, stabbing a zombie in the throat as it tried to sneak up on her. "I have to protect my people out here. You go inside the palace and confront Aiden. I'm going to stay out here and see if I can apprehend his hooligan friends."

"Okay. Okay. Good plan." Jess nodded. "Stay safe, okay?"

"You as well." Isa saluted Jess, then ran off to kill the monsters threatening her people. Jess headed towards the palace, then halted. Maya and Gill stood right there in front of the doors, armed with diamond swords _and_ a chest full of monster eggs. They could spawn in a creeper to assassinate Jess before she even had a chance to climb up the stairs. She needed another way in, but what could that be?

"Yoo-hoo! Jess!" Some man was calling for her attention. Jess looked over and saw Milo, as well as a few other Sky Citizens, huddling in the shell of a building. A duo of skeletons bent their bows against Milo and his friends. They needed her help.

"I've got it, Milo!" Jess called to him, dashing over to help.

"I knew I could depend on you!" the kooky man cheered.

"Hi-yah! Take that, marrow heads!" Jess taunted as she stabbed her sword through both skeletons, killing them. They broke apart into dust. Just as Milo came out of the building and was about to say something to Jess, a new enemy jumped into their midst. It was a skeleton riding a spider. Milo took action right away. He knocked the skeleton off the spider and bashed it with an iron sword, while Jess handled the spider. She cut it down with her own sword, then shuddered. She hated spiders.

"Excellent moves, lovely Jess," Milo complimented. "But...how is it possible for you to be alive? Did you not fall into the Void?"

"It's a long story," Jess explained breathlessly. "To put it simply, there's actually land underneath Sky City. Isa and I fell into a lake and then we built our way back up."

"Land?" Milo's eyes went wide. "Do my ears deceive me? There's land underneath this place?"

"Yes, land," Jess stammered.

A Ghast floated into their range and screeched, interrupting their conversation. Jess tensed up to take action again.

"Well, um, I'd be glad to hear all about it...but not now!" Milo took a battle stance. "You can hit these varmints' fire charges back at them, right?"

"Yeah, you gotta hit them at just the right moment." Jess scooted out of the shelter. "Hold down the fort, Milo. I have to get to the palace!"

"Best wishes, friend!" Milo called after Jess as she made a dash for the palace. She paused a few strides shy of the doors. Maya and Gill were still there, and having way too much fun flinging spawn eggs at the innocent people.

"Eat gunpowder!" Gill chucked a creeper egg into the crowd. "Blaze Rods!"

"Boom! Egg!" Maya taunted, knocking a person down with a spider egg to the head.

Jess growled in anger at those clods and resisted the urge to charge at them with her sword. Petra hurried in to help the person who'd been headshot with the egg, slashing the spider with her golden sword. She helped the victim to their feet, then took notice of Jess.

"Jess! Omigosh! You're alive?" The redhead was stunned and relieved at the same time.

Jess waved to her. "Yeah, I'm good! I'll have to tell you-LOOK OUT!"

A Ghast had loomed up behind Petra. It shot at Jess, and she had to jump to the side to avoid the fireball. When the cloud of smoke from the explosion cleared, Jess saw that two of its friends had joined it. She froze up in fear at the three Ghasts geared up to shoot at her. Just as they fired their cannons, Ivor leapt out of nowhere and tackled Jess to safety in a ditch. He sat her up and explained the situation as quickly as he could:

"Aiden took over the palace. To keep everyone else out, he got his friends to throw eggs at the Sky City people. So the door's blocked. You'd need another way in."

"Do you have any ideas?" Jess asked haltingly. Because she had no ideas of her own. She felt way too overwhelmed right now to come up with a clever way of getting inside.

"Aha!" Ivor snapped his fingers, getting an idea. "You could use one of my potions!"

"How would that help?"

He whisked out three potions and held them in his arms like precious babies. "I have Invisibility, Leaping, and Swiftness potions. Locally-sourced, fair-trade, and organic ingredients. Only the best!"

Each of those had their advantages, but Jess didn't have time to mull over the individual benefits. On a whim, she chose the Leaping potion. Both the Swiftness and Invisibility potions were blue, so it was hard to tell which one was which. The green Leaping potion, on the other hand, was easily identifiable.

"Leaping, please!" she requested. Ivor handed her the green potion. Jess uncorked the bottle, then drank up the potion as quickly as she could so she wouldn't have to taste it. She hated the flavor of leaping potions; they tasted like spicy mushrooms and rabbit meat. Jess shuddered, then smiled as the potion took effect. She felt almost weightless. It was as if her legs had transformed into magic springs. She turned her back towards the palace, then pushed off against the ground. The jump boost carried her high into the air; she swooped over the chaos below in an amazing backflip.

"Awwwwww-yeaaaaaah!" she cheered as she soared, then landed perfectly on the roof. She dropped down through the hole in the roof, landing right behind Gill and Maya. Aiden's cronies were oblivious to her presence. Jess could have taken an extra second to punch out those two jokers, but she went for the boss instead. She kicked open the throne room doors to confront Aiden.

The unofficial king of Sky City lounged on the Founder's throne. He petted the Eversource as it rested on his lap. At the same time, he was arguing with Reginald. The captain of the guard was red-faced with fury and looked like he was about to cry.

"Oh, get over it, will you?" Aiden sneered at Reginald. "The Founder's dead! And so's Jess! I'm king now, so you'd better get used to it, Reggie."

"You're deluded!" Reginald shot back. "You can't take Sky City like this and expect everyone to bow down to you. You murdered our Founder!"

"Yeah?" Aiden challenged, sitting up. "Then you can be next, if you don't shut up."

Jess decided it was time to put an end to Aiden's nonsense. She stepped forward and pointed her sword.

"Hey, Aiden!" she said. "Why don't you leave Reginald out of this? The person you really need to deal with is over here."

Recognizing the voice, Aiden gawked at Jess. For a second, he looked truly terrified, and then he got angry.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Guess I didn't get the memo." Jess took another step forward.

Reginald all but jumped up and clapped at the sight of Jess. "You're alive...you made it!"

Irritated by Reggie's celebration, Aiden whisked out a creeper spawn egg. He kicked Reginald to the floor, then threw the egg at him. It broke and a creeper popped out. Reginald barely had time to look behind him and see it before it exploded. The blast threw Reginald a few meters back. The blast didn't kill him, but it did incapacitate him.

"Reggie!" Jess cried, forgetting that he hated to be called that.

"I'm...I'm okay, kiddo," he said. "Just...I need a second to catch my breath."

Jess started to rush over to help Reginald, but Aiden jumped to his feet while giving her the death glare.

"Take another step and you'll be sorry," he growled. "If I can kill you once, it won't be hard to do it again."

 _Except that you didn't actually kill me,_ Jess thought. What a little megalomaniac! Aiden had a serious problem handling jealousy, if it led him from being a schoolyard bully to _this_ monstrosity.

"Aiden, don't make this harder than it needs to be," Jess said. "Just hand over the Eversource."

With fire in his eyes, Aiden snarled, "JUST. DIE. ALREADY."

Jess was taken aback by how far off the deep end she'd gone, but she had to stand her ground. She tensed up, ready to deal with whatever this crazy punk was going to throw at her.

What Aiden did throw at her was an orange spawn egg. It broke on the floor, releasing a flaming golden monster. A Blaze was little more than a head on a smoke column with rods spinning around its body, but it was still very dangerous. They were fast, and they could shoot three fireballs at a time. The Blaze spewed out a round of fireballs, which Jess had to jump to the side to avoid. Fire charges from a Blaze moved too quickly to be rebounded.

"Finish her!" Aiden said to the Blaze.

"Hi-yah!" Jess leapt up at the Blaze and cut it down in midair. The creature fell to the floor in a heap and melted into dust.

With his Blaze scheme foiled, Aiden took the fight into his own hands. He made a rather impressive leap off the Founder's throne, sword raised. Jess heard the blade scrape and turned just in time to block his attack. However, the force still knocked her to the floor. She somersaulted out of the way as Aiden slashed down with his sword. She gasped slightly, startled by his viciousness. Had she been a second too slow, he could have decapitated her.

Now he was livid. "You ruin everything! I had a chance to be something, but you just had to come here and take it away from me!"

"You wanted that 'something' to be a dictator who terrorizes innocent people?" Jess shot back. "What's gotten into you?"

Aiden was done arguing. He slashed at Jess again and she had to block his attack. Sparks flew and energy whined as the two enchanted swords clashed against each other. Not only were the weapons nearly equally matched, but the combatants were also just about the same strength. Jess and Aiden struggled to overpower each other. To get the advantage, Jess brought her foot up and kicked Aiden away. She didn't know her own power, because Aiden was thrown backwards, colliding with the throne. His sword slid half a meter away.

"I've got you now," Jess said, advancing on him. Now that his weapon had fallen out of his hand, she really had the upper hand. If she could corner him, she could apprehend him and put an end to his nonsense.

Aiden looked stunned, then angry. He yelled something unintelligible and threw another Blaze egg at Jess. He used the moment of distraction to grab his sword and run out onto the balcony.

"Hey!" Jess shouted after him. "Get over here, you little brat!"

She tried to pursue him, but the Blaze blocked her way. It spewed fire out of its mouth. Jess jumped out of the way and ran in a big circle around the creature. The Blaze dove headfirst at Jess, attempting to attack at close range, but she ducked. Instead, the Blaze flew outside the room, getting caught in the rain. Since it was a creature of fire, the rain injured it. It fell out of the sky, dissolving into smoke. Now the only enemy left was Aiden.

"End of the line," Jess said to him as she advanced. He stood on a ledge off the balcony, shoulders stooped and sword drawn. He didn't say anything. He just kept glaring at Jess as she approached.

Jess walked out of the room, across the balcony, and onto the ledge. The rain soaked her hair. Thunder growled around them and lightning flashed. It was as if nature itself knew the gravity of this battle. She paused and looked up. Their eyes met.

"So…" Aiden said, his voice strangely calm. "This is what it's come to, huh?"

"It didn't have to be like this," said Jess.

"It wouldn't have been like this if you had just given me a chance. If you'd let me be a hero for once."

"But now you've made yourself a villain."

"You're the villain in my story. Because you never gave me a chance. All I wanted was for people to look at me like how they look at you. To have the attention for just a minute. But no. I never got that, because you and your friends were always stealing that chance from me."

"You let your jealousy control you. All this madness is just because you were starving for attention."

"So nothing is ever your fault, huh?" His grip on the sword handle tightened. "It's my fault I wasn't made a hero in everyone's sight? Are you gonna argue that I was born a villain or something?"

Jess narrowed her eyes.

"You're selfish, you know that?" Aiden breathed in heavily. "You can't stand to see anyone else win. Well, watch this. I'm going to win this fight, and then you can feel what it's like to lose for once in your life."

A spear of lightning raked across the sky. Thunder boomed two seconds later. The combatants struck their battle poses. Aiden looked like he was bowing at the waist, and Jess poised herself as if she was curtsying. Then they bounded towards each other, swords raised.

The blades crashed together, throwing sparks into the dark sky. They were moving so fast that they looked like sparkling blue waves. Again and again the blades smashed together, sending out a ringing noise through the empty sky. Jess and Aiden were a show of sweeping blades and skillful dodging as they fought. They stepped forward and back and forward again, rhythmically almost. Their movements were like a mockery of a romantic dance.

Having weapons of equal power and almost the same amount of training, it was hard for one fighter to overpower the other. They both had a fiery zeal to come out on top. Aiden was too stubborn to relent, and as the defensive one, Jess knew she couldn't give up. She feared that Aiden really would kill her if he got the chance. So she knew she couldn't give him that chance.

Then she parried one of his blows with enough force to knock him to the ground. He bounced on the stones, and for a second, Jess thought she'd finally disabled him. But then he scowled and jumped to his feet again, still determined to win. Once again they went at it. Aiden kept the offensive, with Jess continuing to block his every strike.

Finally, their swords slammed together and neither was willing to give in. Aiden gritted his teeth and tensed up his arm muscles, trying his hardest to overcome Jess's force. Knowing that she needed an advantage, Jess used a trick Petra had taught her. She scraped the sword-blade down and twisted it around to make Aiden lose his grip on his own sword. Then she swept her sword to the side with enough force to throw Aiden on his back again.

Aiden fell on his back, bouncing on the stones. His sword flew over his head and off the ledge, disappearing into the clouds below. He watched his sword fall out of sight, then looked back at Jess with an expression of pure terror. He'd lost the fight, and now he realized what situation he was in: he was stuck on the wrong end of a ledge, with the culpability of everything that had happened to Sky City on his shoulders, as well as his worst enemy advancing on him with a sword while he was defenseless. She could do literally whatever she wanted to him right now.

"I think you said something interesting about how I was going to lose this fight," Jess said, approaching him. She didn't lower her sword.

Aiden scrambled to his feet and thrust his arms into the air in surrender. "Wait! No, please! I surrender, I swear!"

Jess didn't say anything; she just narrowed her eyes at him.

"We could talk this out, couldn't we? Right?" His voice got higher as he panicked. "Um...Uh...Have your flint and steel back! You want it back, right?"

He yanked the enchanted flint and steel out of his pockets and tossed the pieces at Jess's feet. Then he got down on his knees and stooped his shoulders, still keeping his hands in the air. Jess carefully bent down to pick up the flint and steel. She kept an eye on Aiden the whole time, glaring at him to make sure he didn't try anything dumb. When she had re-collected her flint and steel, she pointed her sword at him again. He tensed up.

"It's all yours!" Aiden whimpered. "Just please don't hurt me!"

Jess didn't know what to do with him. On one hand, Aiden had caused the downfall of an entire city. Even though she hadn't been there to witness it, he'd endangered thousands of lives. But on the other hand, did she really have the authority to punish him for what he had done? Just because she had the power to throw him off the edge didn't mean she had the obligation to, right?

"Jess! There you are!" Reginald exclaimed as he ran up behind Jess, holding the Eversource. "We need to evacuate the city and-wait, you apprehended Aiden?"

An explosion shook the ground. Aiden made a snuffling sound, like he was about to cry. "Please don't hurt me."

The captain of the guard met gazes with Jess. "What do you want to do with that maggot? You're his judge now."

Aiden was shaking his head. "I know I'm in the wrong, but please! We need to get out of here. Take me with you."

Reginald scoffed. "After all the trouble you've caused? After you murdered the Founder? You don't deserve that mercy."

Forgiveness was a virtue, but Jess couldn't help but wonder if what Aiden did was unforgivable. She was about to correct Reginald and tell him that the Founder wasn't actually dead, but for some reason, she didn't say anything about that.

Jess bit her lip. "I don't know. Maybe we should leave him here. He wanted this to be his world. Well, now it can be."

As soon as the words slipped out of her mouth, she regretted them. How could she say something like that? Aiden sniffled some more, but these weren't crocodile tears. He was genuinely frightened for his fate.

"Y-You'd really do that? You'd leave me to die here? I...I thought you were a good guy."

That wasn't a guilt trip. Jess could hear the heartbreak in his voice. She squinted so he couldn't tell that she was trying not to cry.

"Good is not soft, Aiden." Reginald walked away, leaving Jess and Aiden alone on the ledge again. The rain was falling much more softly now. Jess watched Reginald leave, then turned back to Aiden.

"I'm in the wrong. I know. Maybe I really do deserve this." His shoulders drooped in resignation.

Jess did something that gave Aiden the biggest shock of the day. She sheathed her sword, extended her hand to him, and helped him to his feet. Jess actually surprised herself by doing so.

She looked him dead in the eye. "The Founder isn't dead, and neither is Lukas. There's ground below us, so we made a safe landing. You did terrible things, but you're no killer. But we need to evacuate everyone from this place before someone really does get killed."

"You're...you're not going to leave me behind?" He was a bit hesitant to take her hand.

"I believe in second chances. Come on, let's go."

The two of them left the ledge and went back inside, heading back to confront the chaos outside. There was still a city to save.


	8. A Whole New World

**So sorry about the wait! :( I got swamped with other projects.**

Jess sprinted out of the wrecked palace, sword in hand. Aiden followed behind her, looking skittish. Explosions continued to rock the ground underfoot, and screams rang in the air. Jess heard Aiden gulp behind her; he just got smacked with a sober reminder of the consequences of his actions. Reginald stood at the foot of the steps leading up to the palace, still holding the Eversource. The chicken clucked and ruffled her feathers, frightened by the mayhem raging in Sky City.

Since the ground had been blasted apart by explosions, the irrigation ditches had flooded. Now they pooled into a large cascade of water spilling over the edge. Some people fell into the waterfall when blasted off their feet by a creeper explosion or Ghast fireball. Jess swallowed hard, distressed by the sight of the ruined city and terrorized people.

"Hey, Jess! Over here!" Petra called to her. She and Ivor had the other two Blaze rods in custody. Maya and Gill knelt in front of them with their hands in the air. Ivor and Petra held their swords out at the hooligans in case they tried to jump up and try something dumb. Jess grabbed Aiden by the arm and pushed him over to Petra and Ivor. He stumbled and fell on his knees next to his friends.

"You stay there," Ivor ordered to him.

"Uh-huh," Aiden mumbled, head drooping.

"Look out!" Ivor grabbed Jess's hand and pulled her out of the way as a Ghast fireball came soaring at her. It slammed into the ground in a rush of fire, knocking down several Sky Citizens with the force of the impact. But before the Ghast could make another shot, Isa came swooping out of nowhere to show her prowess. She turned a pirouette in the air, slicing the Ghast across the face with her dual iron swords. The Ghast let out a wail, fell to the ground, and melted into dust. Landing softly, Isa sheathed her weapons and ran up to Jess.

"Have you rescued the Eversource from Aiden?" she asked.

"We have, ma'am!" Reginald proudly announced, holding up the chicken in his arms.

While Isa helped up a citizen who had been thrown to the ground by an explosion, Milo ran onto the scene, leading a group of fellow refugees.

"Stay together!" he shouted to them. "Going off on your own is inviting death!"

He spotted the Isa, but didn't react to her presence. Obviously the fall of Sky City was a more pressing matter than his personal loathing of the Founder.

"Ah! There you are," he said to Jess. "These were all the people I could congregate. What is your plan to bring them to safety?"

Isa had a similar idea. "This situation is dire. It's Sky City's darkest hour. The city is overrun and ravaged. My people cannot defend themselves. We can't save them _and_ defeat all these foul monsters. We have to evacuate!"

"Right!" Jess blurted. She knew she needed to come up with some idea for getting everyone out of Sky City quickly. Chewing her bottom lip, she glanced around and tried to come up with an idea. Could she get everyone to jump off the edge and skydive into the lake? No, that was too dangerous; someone might miss and fall to their death. Could she build something that they could climb down? No, of course not; that would take forever! Her gaze fell on the giant waterfall pouring off the edge, and that was where her idea was born.

"The waterfall!" she announced to everyone. "Let's jump in the waterfall and ride that down. It's the safest way out of this doomed city."

Unfortunately, not everyone thought that it was a good idea.

"Have you gone mad?" snapped the nervous guy from before. "T-The waterfall's just gonna take us into the Void! We'll die!"

"We'll also die if we stay here!" Milo retorted, shooting the nervous guy a mean look. The whole crowd was muttering now, divided on people who thought they should jump and folks who thought they should stay.

"The waterfall is going to take us to land," Jess said to the people. "There's land below us."

That didn't convince the citizens, so Jess decided to show it to them. She sidled up to the edge of the ditch. The water rushed past her, spraying her hair and armor.

"Watch this!"

She jumped backwards, landed in the water, and started swimming. The citizens watched her curiously. A few approached the ditch's edge, more convinced now that Jess herself had jumped in. A Ghast screeched as it swooped in toward the crowd, making it clear that it was now or never.

"Jess speaks the truth!" Isa announced to her people. "There is indeed land below us. I saw it myself. It is safe to jump! In fact...let me prove it to you."

Isa attempted a dramatic dive off the edge, but ended up belly flopping instead. Regardless, the onlookers still gasped as their authority figure gave herself up to the waterfall's mercy.

Reginald was the next one to step up. "Madam Founder! Wait for me, please!"

He and the Eversource hopped into the waterfall and splashed after the Founder. Milo glanced this way and that, saluted the other Sky Citizens, and dove in as well. More and more people followed their lead, convinced that it was safe to go. Well, except for Maya, Gill, and Aiden, who were _kicked_ into the water by Ivor and Petra. Petra looked a little too happy with herself as she gave Maya a boot to the back and launched her into the waterfall.

Up and over the crest of the waterfall the people went, with Jess in the lead. Even though they knew Jess was taking them someplace safe, it didn't stop them from squealing in fright as they fell down the great cascade of water, into the clouds and down to the ground below.

* * *

As she was the first to ride the waterfall out of Sky City, so Jess was the first one to land in the lake below it. She didn't manage a proper dive this time and hit the water with a heavy splash. She pushed her head above the surface, gasping for air, and paddled out of the way as more people started to fall into the lake. The rain petered out and the sun emerged from the clouds, shining afternoon light on the trees and hills around them.

Jess smiled as she watched the Sky Citizens crawl onshore. They gaped in wonder as they walked on solid, earthen ground for the first time. A few people flopped on the ground and rolled around blissfully in the grass. Others tapped on tree trunks, marveling at the sight of so many trees in one area.

The Founder climbed onshore and approached Jess. "Jess, I am so sorry for doubting you. You have truly proven yourself to be invaluable and a saviour of Sky City. I thank you deeply."

Jess blushed at the compliment. It was good to know that the Founder was on her side now. She felt fully vindicated at last. Aiden and the Blaze Rods...well, it was all on them now, but that would be dealt with later.

Then Reginald voiced the thought that everyone had: "What are we to do now? We don't even know how to feel. I'm...I'm scared, but also excited? It's very confusing. It's so different."

"Well, there is one thing that should be done right away," Jess said with a slight chuckle. "We should collect resources. That's what our ancestors did to build civilization in the first place, and now that you're building up a new society, it's time to do it again."

"But how do we do that?" Reginald was perplexed. He'd never collected resources before. He only oversaw their distribution and use. For all he knew, the Eversource clucked out magic spells to make resources materialize in the Founder's palace.

"Easy. Cut down trees, mine for stone in caverns, farm for food, smelt ore into metal," Jess explained, counting off methods on her fingers. "It doesn't take a lot of skill."

Reginald still looked quizzical. He would have to ask Isa about resource logistics later.

"Jess is right," Isa declared. "It is imperative that we have adequate resources to sustain my people. We cannot lead them on an exodus from Sky City only for them to starve in the wilderness. But even before that, we have some criminal souls with whom we must deal…"

She glared pointedly over at the Blaze Rods. Aiden, Gill, and Maya looked down in shame as a squad of Sky City guards surrounded them. Defeated, they tossed their diamond swords on the ground, which were quickly confiscated.

"Aw, Jess, I'm proud of you," a lovely voice said. Jess turned and smiled as Lukas limped up to her. He was still holding his injured arm, but he didn't seem to be in as much pain as before.

"Proud of me?" Jess hoped she wasn't blushing. "Why would you be proud of me?"

He patted her on the shoulder. "You saved Sky City and brought the Blaze Rods to justice. I know that sounds corny, but I'm really proud of you for it. Well done, friend."

Luckily, Petra turned the group's attention over to the Blaze Rods, so Lukas couldn't see that Jess was blushing several shades of pink just then.

"Taking a guess here, but…" Petra chuckled. "I'm gonna guess that they're in trouble."

The Sky City guards made Gill, Maya, and Aiden stand up. When they were on their feet, all three of them got handcuffs snapped on their wrists. Gill and Maya let out groans of disappointment, but Aiden still looked ashamed of himself.

"Well, they're not in for a good time," Jess said, even though it was obvious. "Isa and the Sky Citizens are so ticked off at them right now."

Something very uncharacteristic suddenly came out of Lukas's mouth: "Ooh, what if the Sky City people dug a big hole, threw the Blaze Rods in it, then poured in lava and-"

He paused. Everyone in the vicinity gaped in horror at his suggestion. Well, everyone except for Ivor, who was smirking and nodding. It was probably because Lukas had mentioned lava.

Lukas cleared his throat and sheepishly added, "Um, yes, you're right. That _would_ be a bad thing if they...um...did that. Yeah. Uh, has anyone seen the Eversource?"

"She's in my hands," Reginald said warily, showing the chicken that he very clearly held in his arms. There was no way Lukas couldn't have noticed her. Lukas smoothed his hair and whistled awkwardly. Sure, he was suave most of the time, but apparently he had trouble bouncing back from an embarrassing moment.

Meanwhile, the Sky City guards marched the Blaze Rods past Jess and the others, looking for a suitable place to inter them until later. Aiden spotted Jess out of the corner of his eye and glanced away, too ashamed to make eye contact with her.

She addressed him anyway. "Aiden."

The guards paused so she could talk to him. He shied away slightly, afraid of her.

"Oh. Uh...hello, Jess," he said, still avoiding eye contact. "I...I just...I'm sorry for everything that I did. I'm so stupid. I've caused so much trouble...hurt so many people...there's something wrong with me. I wish I could undo it."

Jess let him talk. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to say. As much as she wanted to call him stupid for what he did, she could tell that he was genuinely sorry. He might have only been sorry because he got caught earlier, but now that he had seen the effects of his actions, he truly was seeking forgiveness.

"You know, I'm sorry, too," Jess said. Those words out of her mouth surprised everyone, including herself.

Aiden's eyebrows perked. "What?"

"I should have tried to see things from your perspective," she continued. "I was too prideful myself, and I never gave you a chance. I should have tried to make friends with you. I guess I thought it was just easier to think of you as a villain. And by doing so, I let you become a villain."

"I let jealousy eat me up. It was so stupid of me. I saw how awesome you'd become and, well, I wanted a piece of it too." Aiden sighed. "I wanted to shine."

"But now you have a lot to think about, don't you?" Lukas said to him. It was hard for Jess to tell if he was angry or sympathetic. Maybe it was both and he harbored some kind of deploring pity for his former friend.

"Yeah. I know." Aiden looked downcast. "But now I've tainted my chance."

"Not necessarily," Jess said. "You can still turn things around. People are willing to forgive. You still have plenty of life left. Use it to do something good."

That gave him an idea. His sagging shoulders straightened a bit, as if an invisible weight was being lifted off them. A little sparkle came to his eyes when he realized that he wasn't beyond forgiveness.

"You're right. Yeah. You're right...I want to do something good. Maybe I could become a writer. Build a little house and write down stories. That would make people happy."

The guards gave him a push from behind to go. He managed to shout out one last thing to Jess as he was led away.

"Thanks for giving me a second chance!"

Jess watched him leave, then put a hand on her hip. "You know, something tells me that he isn't going to waste that second chance. He feels like he's changed. He might do good from now on."

"Hmph. Maybe," Ivor said. Unlike Jess, Ivor didn't like to believe the best of people.

While Jess contemplated Aiden's potential heel-face turn, Reginald's voice boomed out over the hillside.

"Attention, everyone! Your Founder is giving an important message!"

Jess shrugged and hurried over with her friends to where Isa was speaking. Isa stood on a bump of earth, lofted for everyone to see. All eyes were glued on her.

"Hello, everyone. This is your Founder speaking. Thankfully, we are all safe now. Jess has made a wonderful effort. But now we must make sure that we continue to be safe; we have to organise. We have a new community to plan."

"Bah!" Milo shouted, shoving his way to the front of the group and audaciously standing right next to the Founder. "Are you listening to yourself, woman? We are tired of being prisoners. You held us under your thumb long enough; it's time for us to be free. To make our _own_ rules."

There were several gasps from the crowd. People were startled by his irreverence.

"Oh, great, now they're gonna fight," Petra complained to Ivor.

Isa sucked in a tense breath and said, "Jess, dear Jess...I cannot allow this naive idealist to give my people bad ideas. Surely you understand my plight. We have to continue to keep these people safe…"

Milo glared. "Naive idealist? Of course I look like a naive idealist through the eyes of a dictator!"

Jess sighed. In a way, Isa and Milo reminded her of the squabbling that was always going on between Magnus and Ellegaard. She needed to say something that would stop the bickering before it really took off.

"Please stop fighting," she told them. "That will not solve anything."

"Of course it will!" Milo countered. "It will help this autocrat realize that she can't herd us around like sheep! She doesn't want us to think for ourselves."

Isa gritted her teeth and shot back, "And this fool wants my people to run wild without any idea how to fend for themselves, and end up starving in the wilderness or getting killed by monsters!"

Jess groaned. Now these two _really_ reminded her of Magnus and Ellegaard.

"I don't think you all understand," Isa said to the crowd. "It will be night soon, and monsters come out in the darkness. The same kind of monsters that destroyed our city."

There were many gasps in the crowd.

"Rot!" Milo snapped at her. "You're just making up excuses to keep on controlling us. You autocrat!"

"And _you're_ just making up excuses to cause chaos and endanger my people. You anarchist!" Isa shot back.

The people started to mumble and murmur. There seemed to be a division between those that thought Isa was correct and those who sided with Milo.

"Wait. Stop fighting," Jess said again. "There doesn't have to be a choice between two extremes. We could do a bit of both."

"Huh?" was the general response. "How would we do that?"

"Neither extreme is good," Jess elaborated. "Milo is right that Isa can't shelter everyone from every possible danger. She can't bog the people down with endless rules and control them, not with a wide-open world and plenty of resources."

"Jess!" Isa said, offended.

"Hang on. I'm not done talking. But Isa is right that we can't have everyone running around wildly. The people don't know how to fend for themselves very well, and the wild world is dangerous. They need to learn how to craft and build and protect themselves against mobs."

"Phooey," Milo muttered.

"I say we should let the people be free _and_ safe," Jess concluded. That got a nice, positive response from the people. They clapped for her and cheered.

"Way to go, Jess!" they said.

Isa stepped down from her perch. "It seems to be that Sky City is no more. Now we are Ground City, I suppose, for want of a better name. I thank you for your help, Jess. You have helped me become aware to my faults. Every good leader needs to be humble."

"Isa and I may argue from time to time," Milo said, "but you have shown us the benefit of compromise, and we will put it into practice."

Jess nodded. "I hope that you two will work together to build something great."

"Indeed," said Isa. "I will work my hardest."

Milo saluted. "I swear it on a solemn oath."

Jess and her friends watched them leave with big, proud smiles. Lukas turned to Jess.

"You know, Isa was scary and really uptight at first, but...you know...she's okay. She's not bad at all. She just wants what's best for her people."

"Man, Milo is a riot," Petra said. "I'm gonna miss him and his craziness."

Then suddenly her expression changed. The smile dropped off her face, and her forehead crinkled with worry.

"Peets? Is something wrong?" Jess asked.

"I just realized something," the redhead said. "We don't have a portal. We're stuck here and we can't go back home. Uh...I guess we'd better get together and shelter and stuff for nightfall…"

Petra tried to make her voice sound strong, but Jess could tell that she was upset. She was probably upset that she wouldn't see Axel or Olivia again, and Jess felt teary when she thought of that as well. None of them had anticipated that there wouldn't be a portal back home.

Wait a minute.

But maybe there actually was.

"Hold on a second." Jess paced a few steps. "I don't think we're stuck here, actually."

Ivor wasn't listening. "And to think that I thought my days of harvesting wood and slathering mortar on bricks were over! Feh! I'll have to build my library and potion collection from the ground up. Disgraceful!"

Jess tried to get his attention. "Ivor."

"There were loads of rare books in my collection! And it's a great gamble that the same copies of any given book I own would be in this world as well," the grumpy alchemist continued. "With my luck, I won't find a quarter of my original collection. Who's to say what the quality of alchemy books will be here, either?"

"Ivor."

Still oblivious, he continued to mutter to himself: "How will I replenish my stock of gold? Don't tell me I'll have to dig my own gold mine to find the stuff. Do these people not have any respect for their elders? I do not have the stamina to swing a pickaxe! I'm an old man, and these people should treat me with more respect-"

"IVOR!"

" _What?!_ "

"Stop fussing about replacing your books and magic stuff for a second, because you probably won't have to, after all!" Jess tugged at her hair in exasperation.

"What?"

"Yeah. Between all the drama with Aiden and having to evacuate Sky City, I totally forgot about the other portal."

"You found another portal?" Ivor twitched, trying not to hop up in joy. "We aren't trapped here?"

"Hopefully we aren't," Jess replied. "Isa and I found it while digging up dirt. It's in there!"

She pointed over at the gaping trench in the ground. Ivor gave her a strange, strangled look.

" _And you didn't tell us?_ "

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ivor's right!" Petra blurted. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"There...there just wasn't a good time," Jess stammered. "Sorry."

"I thought I said something about it," Lukas said. "Did I say something about it?"

Ivor crossed his arms. "No. You said nothing about a portal, Louie."

"It's Lukas."

"Whatever!"

"Anyway," Jess said, "why are we wasting time arguing about it? Let's hop through and go home."

So they dashed off towards the trench to light the portal. But they didn't get very far before a clumsy hen faceplanted in front of them, almost knocking the crown off her little head. The Eversource wobbled to her feet, clucking and pecking at the ground. Isa wasn't far behind.

"There you are, my precious pet!" she cooed, bending down to pat the Eversource on the head. "I've been looking all over for you."

"She looks so happy," Jess said. "Now that she doesn't have to be cooped up in a castle anymore."

"Precisely," Isa replied. "She will very much enjoy being relieved of her duties as the Eversource, I daresay."

"What do you mean by _that_?" Ivor fumed.

Isa ignored him and started baby-talking to her pet chicken. "But what shall we do with you now, eh? What shall you do? Besides continue to be _adorable_ , that is!"

"You're not gonna, uh, eat her, are you?" Jess didn't realize how weird and non sequitur the question was until it was out of her mouth. Oops.

Isa scowled, then bent down and took the crown off the Eversource. "Of course not! That's ever so morbid. I would not eat my friend. We are tired of being the Founder and the Eversource. We just want to be Isa and her best friend, Benedict."

"Benedict is a boy's name!" Ivor rolled his eyes.

"Ugh. How closed-minded," Isa scoffed. "Please do get with the times, sir."

Ivor facepalmed and Petra stifled a chuckle.

"I named my best friend Benedict because she was a blessing to Sky City," Isa said as the gave the little gold crown to Jess. "I would be honoured if you took this reminder of that blessing on your travels. It is the least I can do for you for your help."

"Thanks." Jess put the crown in her pocket.

"Now farewell!" Isa waved to Jess and walked away. "Benedict and I have many adventures ahead of us!"

Ivor was grumpy to watch the Eversource/Benedict walk away, taking his chances of having access to unlimited resources with her. He shuffled on his feet and grumbled something about how a "wellspring of value" was going to waste its potential by waddling around and eating seeds. Jess tuned him out and let her gaze fall on a small herd of pigs resting on the hillside. They rooted around for carrots and rolled in the grass. One pig turned around and looked right at Jess with its big, sad eyes. She felt her heart quiver.

"Jess? Are you okay?" Lukas walked up to her. "You seem down all of a sudden."

"I saw the pigs and...well...I'm missing someone special," she said, wiping her eyes. The others nodded wordlessly, understanding who she was talking about. They walked away from the pigs and headed over to the trench. After carefully descending into the trench, Jess showed them the portal she had found.

"Yech. I will be glad when this ordeal is over," Ivor commented as they approached the quartz structure.

"Aww, does someone feel a little grumpy?" Petra asked him in mock baby-talk.

"No!" he protested, then said, "Well, yes. I was hoping we'd have real treasure. This adventure was a waste!"

"But if we hadn't come here, we wouldn't have been able to rescue the Sky Citizens and show them the land below," Jess pointed out. She got out the enchanted flint and steel and prepared to light the portal.

"What, do you suppose, would happen if you placed that crown on another chicken?" Ivor wondered out loud.

"Don't know," Jess said, lighting the portal. "Guess we'll just have to find out when we get home."

"Hmph."

"Gosh, this was so exciting," Jess chirped as they stepped through the portal. "I can't wait to tell Axel and Olivia about…"

She trailed off. The gang had gone through the portal, but it did not take them home. There was something wrong with it. Instead of being greeted by the trees and clear sky of their home dimension, an intimidating sight stretched out before them. It was a long, cold hallway shrouded in shadows. The only light in the hallway came from dozens and dozens of multicolored portals. There were many, many, _many_ more worlds than home.

The adventure was _far_ from being over.

 **A/N: Thank you for coming along! The next story I have planned for my novelization series is "Access Denied," chosen by reader vote. Excitement! Drama! Lukesse! I'm going to have fun with that one!**

 **:D**


End file.
